Suffer No More
by EiriFllyn
Summary: Two Taylors on two worlds die after being tormented and their spirits join in the locker, the combined essence reviving her, keeping her alive until Panacea saves her. The cultivator in her swears that this time, she won't allow the world to be sorry to her. No human, sect, or god will oppress her or her saviour ever again. Xianxia cultivation themes.
1. Spirit 1-1

Inspired by elements of the excellent and heart-wrenching "The Way of Choices", the terrible and facepalm worthy "Dragon Emperor Martial God", and some truly over the top grimderp cultivation novels that I won't name. The actual cultivation world Cultivator!Taylor comes from and her cultivation system is a mishmash of stuff from these that I felt like using, not a specific cross.

 **Spirit 1.1**

The insects bit and gnawed at her, her helpless flailing doing nothing but bloody her skin. Her cries receiving only echoes of her own voice in return. In another reality, an alien entity would have saved her from the insects suffocating her and eating her alive, granting her control over bugs, thereby setting her on a journey that would end in the loss of everyone she loved, to die like trash, to die alone, to be hated by the ungrateful people she sacrificed everything to save.

But here, there was nothing to save her from the crawling mass covering her, nothing to stop the infections streaming into her body. Her throat was sore from screaming and her mouth sour from her vomit, yet nobody came to her aid.

Hours passed and her body was weak, her tears had long dried and the janitor that would have passed by to save her in another reality got sick and went home. Still she struggled, hitting the door with little more than a small bump, whimpering and hoping beyond hope, delirious with the pain ripping her apart.

In her last moments her whole life flashed through her mind, and she felt only despair.

Where did she go wrong, to deserve to die like this?

What sin did she commit to deserve this living hell of the past two years?

She fell still and slumped forward, not even hoping for a heaven to go to, only wishing for the sweet embrace of the end to her suffering. With one last breath, she asked a question.

"W-why, Emma? D-do y-you hate me that m-much?"

O O O

She was bound in chains and suppressive seals, her face an unholy mix of fury and hate. Her eyes defiantly smote the bastards who had chased her all her life, greedy and selfish men who saw her Absolute Yin body as nothing more than a cauldron for their own cultivation and pride.

That was the cruel way of this world, ruled by ambitious and heartless men, powerful sects that only paid lip service to justice, and the so-called Saints who were merely tyrants oppressing the powerless with their oppressive cultivation level.

She was an orphan with nothing to her name, scraping by on the streets until by sheer luck she found a secret manual for the Eternal Star Enlightenment Path. With its legendary cultivation method that revealed the entire path of ascension beyond even Saint to Divine Shadow and Grand Liberation, she began the path of transcending mortality.

With this priceless treasure, she could not join any sect for protection. She hid it zealously and fought hundreds of battles for resources and for comprehending the Grand Dao. Yet, it was meaningless as a powerful sect discovered her "potential" and forcibly pressed her into their group.

Even though she memorized the manual and kept it hidden, fighting other disciples and eking out a place in the bloody group, the sect then discovered she possessed the rare Absolute Yin physique that would allow male cultivators to achieve high level breakthroughs if they used her as a cultivation cauldron and drained her life force. To use her body's special nature as an ingredient or tool no different from a rare herb to be processed into an elixir.

She escaped in desperation when she found out.

She would never allow herself to become a slave to those disgusting pigs. Her body was her own.

She ran for two years while cultivating at an unheard of pace, almost breaking through to Saint herself with the sublime methods of the Eternal Star Enlightenment Path. She would have been the youngest Saint in history at only fifteen years of age.

It was on the cusp of her heavenly tribulation that her enemies, three Saint level cultivators, peak experts of the cultivation world, caught up to her. Their battle obliterated a continent when she revealed the legendary arts she had been cultivating, allowing her to fight outnumbered against enemies of a higher stage, but in the end the forces arrayed against her were too much.

They beat her down and tortured her for three days and nights in the hopes that she would willingly give herself up and maximize her body's utility as a cauldron.

But even through the haze of pain and their attempts to condition her and break her will, she refused to admit defeat.

Just as they gave up and prepared to take her by force, she gathered up all the energy she had scrounged together over the three days and unleashed a final, desperate attack.

She sacrificed all of her own cultivation foundation and channeled the star essence through her destiny link, sending her soul to her star of destiny in the heavens.

The three Saints were shocked as they immediately solidified their Saint Sanctuaries and fled as fast as possible, recognizing the insane power behind the suicide technique.

Her Gold Core fractured, crystallized star essence bursting forth, her Star Territory warped and expanded, a lifetime of hatred and suffering staining the incredibly dense qi black—

—a black void engulfed the Saint cultivators, a terrible pressure reverberated through all cultivators above the Meditation stage across the whole planet as three Saint presences were extinguished, the stars realigned themselves and the lights of four stars of destiny in the sky disappeared.

O O O

A new star emerged in the skies of Earth-Bet, and a destiny link found its way to the body of Taylor Hebert who just breathed her last breath.

The soul of the orphan Taylor with no last name came into the body and the two souls merged.

The Absolute Yin meridians of her body opened suddenly, and with her existing comprehension of the Dao and the link to her destiny star, she skipped past the Spirit Forming and Star Designation steps of the Purification stage.

Her inner qi began to move sluggishly and fight the infections even as two souls' memories exchanged in the merge, sending her into a state of coma.

After another three hours, school was over. The smell of the locker grew overwhelming and it was found by a passing teacher. The locker was then forced open by the substitute janitor. Taylor's unconscious body fell out along with the biohazardous waste and huge gathering of bugs. The ambulance and police were called, and Taylor was rushed to the hospital for life support.

It was only in the late evening when Panacea arrived to help with the permission of a lifeless father.

When she touched Taylor, her power showed her that it was a miracle for Taylor to be alive still.

Her bloodstream was already beyond the lethal limit of bacterial infections, her skin had hundreds of insect bites, her organs were already failing, she was not breathing enough oxygen to sustain her brain function, and her heart was pumping at less than five beats per minute.

Taylor wasn't even a parahuman, as she had no Corona Pollentia. It was as if this girl was living on sheer will, with the intense brain waves that defied her lack of nutrient transfer and her apparent coma, because Panacea's power told her that Taylor's body should have stopped working a long time ago.

Panacea was both incredulous and awed by the way the girl fought to stay alive.

She decided that compared to all the ungrateful patients that seemed to feel entitled to her help, this girl was truly worth giving her best.

Then she tried to manipulate the girl's biology, and found that it was like swimming uphill. Her power was working at barely a tenth of its regular speed for some reason. With the catastrophic damage the girl had suffered and the ongoing cell damage from lack of oxygen, she would be here all night if she wanted to save her.

She grew determined and barked out orders for the nurses to bring biomass, sitting down for what might be the longest continuous healing session of her life.

After Panacea used hours of concentration processing the trillions of cells in Taylor's body, the comatose girl was back to a stable state.

The healing wasn't over but Panacea felt like she could take a short break and shut her eyes with a sigh.

Meanwhile, Taylor finished consolidating her memories.

After comparing her two terrible lives, the hatred and anger only grew.

Where were the heroes that should have saved her before her bullies killed her?

Where were the wisdom and virtue of the sages that comprehended the Dao?

She never fought back against the trio, hoping that Emma would come to her senses and become her best friend again, but she was killed for her naivety.

She had worked so hard to build her cultivation just to survive every day, following the virtuous teachings of the Eternal Star Enlightenment Path without trampling on the innocent, yet in the end she died at the hand of Saints.

It was as if fate itself had decreed that being Taylor was suffering, regardless of which reality she was in.

' _I won't accept that!'_

The world was full of nothing but scum.

Men were all lustful, power-hungry wolves, not a single chivalric knight among them.

Women were scornful, jealous vipers, not a single kind maiden among them.

Nobody ever helped her in either life.

She never asked to have an Absolute Yin physique yet jealous disciples acted as if she ought to be grateful to have the chance for "pair cultivation" with a Saint or otherwise would have gladly seized her themselves if not for fear of spoiling the masters' cauldron.

In Winslow, the girls led by Emma made her life a living hell without even any reason. The guys were like dogs that followed the popular girls' instructions to gain their favour, and the few that didn't were too cowardly to help her.

The authorities were useless and her parents—oh heavens, she wanted to cry at the thought of her mom.

Here on Earth-Bet, she had loving parents she had only dreamed of in the cultivation world, yet all she had now was a fresh kind of pain, a hole in her heart that formed when her mom died.

And her dad—she felt an unreasonable hate for shutting down, for not being there when she needed it and not even realizing her every day was endless torment.

Even now, her spirit sense told her he had been uselessly sitting in the room, lifeless and lost in his own sorrows before falling asleep.

Any cultivator who had completed the Spirit Forming step was capable of using spirit sense, and despite being physically unable to use her five senses during her coma, her mind was conscious of the room through her spirit sense.

It was just unfortunate that only cultivators who had finished the Purification stage and entered the Meditation stage could control their qi consciously. That was why her qi fought Panacea's healing efforts and Taylor could not do anything about it.

At the thought of Panacea, Taylor's heart clenched. She remembered what she had read and heard about the miracle healer.

She was just a teenager like Taylor who worked herself to the bone healing anyone and everyone, going to Endbringer battles bravely, never taking a single dollar for her efforts. Even the Wards and Protectorate got paid but Panacea just volunteered her time and energy until she was exhausted. Taylor could feel Panacea's qi struggling to sustain her.

The healer was healing everyone else when her own health was being traded away, healing _Taylor_ when nobody else had bothered to help.

She had once admired Alexandria and Armsmaster, but they weren't the ones who came to help. If her life in the cultivation world was any indication, they were probably just more of the same scum that pretended to be virtuous while oppressing the weak with their power.

In both worlds, the only one worthy of the title of Saint was Panacea, even if she had no cultivation whatsoever.

Taylor felt the starlight streaming through the window.

She felt the pull of her star of destiny and the resonance building in her soul.

' _I've gone through too much to lay down and accept my fate.'_

She felt her qi stirring again as her soul remembered the first night her body collected star essence.

 _'Even if I have to restart again, I'll cultivate to the top! This time, I would rather be sorry to the world than to let the world be sorry to me!'_

At the stroke of midnight, she focused and reached out through her destiny link to her fated star, its crimson image crystalizing in her mind.

' _If fate has decreed that my lot in life is to suffer, then I'll reach the Grand Liberation, pluck my star of destiny from the sky, and hold my destiny in my own hands!'_

The scripture of the Eternal Star Enlightenment Path flowed through mind easily, and starlight mixed with her qi, forming the star essence that would be the foundation of her cultivation.

In a few short moments, her body began the final step in the Purification stage, Essence Cleansing. The power of the star essence flowed through her meridians and her body rapidly healed, then advanced further, enhancing her physical attributes.

The effect was still small, but after a few more nights of Essence Cleansing at the hyper efficient rate she was cultivating, she would be ready to breakthrough and become a true cultivator again, surpassing mortal limits of physical ability. Even tonight, she had already advanced to the level of a world-class athlete with none of the long-term damage caused by excessive training or inefficient muscle bulk.

As she reached her body's current threshold for star essence, she opened her eyes and sat up.

She turned to look at the Saint who saved her tonight and who still tenderly held her hand.

A pair of shocked eyes stared back at her. Her mouth was slightly agape as if she had just seen something unbelievable. To Taylor, it was a curious expression, but she did not know that Panacea had felt through her power the sudden rapid change in Taylor's entire body. Entire organs were revitalized, DNA mutations were fixed, free radicals completely annihilated by some unknown mechanism, and individual genes were activated or deactivated, all of which transformed the half-dead girl in front of her to the peak of health.

"You saved me," Taylor said, staring reverently at Panacea. Her eyes roamed all over the healer's body, as if desperately trying to burn the image into her mind.

Panacea was at a loss for words, unable to comprehend how someone who was not a cape could suddenly transform like that. Could she have done it herself subconsciously somehow when she accidentally dozed off? It wasn't _impossible_ , seeing as she might have just forgotten how she got rid of the free radicals, and she could theoretically have done the rest…but it would have taken her another hour at least at the rate her power was working before, not the mere minutes it seemed to take just now.

She felt Taylor's hand gripping hers tightly as Taylor's eyes stared into hers.

"Everyone else left me to die. Nobody else helped me. For a long time, I thought someone like you could never exist. Someone with so much kindness and selflessness. You are a born Saint, someone who comprehended the grand Dao by her virtuous nature. I've been searching for someone like you my entire life."

"I'm not a saint, I just happen to have healing powers. It would be wrong if I didn't use them to help," Panacea said with a growing blush. This girl was too strange! What she said just now sounded like a confession. Why was she holding her hand so tightly? It was just for the healing, it didn't mean anything!

"You are doing far more than you have any obligation to. Your own health has declined while you heal others. I feel your qi struggling and the burden you carry in your spirit."

"Huh? What are you talking about?" Panacea recognized the word Taylor used. Was she one of those people that believed in eastern mysticism?

Instead of answering, Taylor pulled Panacea closer to her and reached out to her cheek.

"H-hey, what are you doing?!" Panacea yelped as her face flushed at the sudden prickle of Taylor's fingers on her cheek and nape. Her heart skipped a beat and she fought the thoughts of Taylor's body that came into her mind.

It was all wrong, she liked _Vicky_ , she thought as Taylor closed her eyes and her face approached. However, her body didn't listen and she failed to resist.

Just as she shut her eyes and waited for the kiss to come, Taylor touched her forehead to Panacea's.

Her spirit sense entered through the physical bridge between their heads, and brushed Panacea's still unformed spirit sea.

In that moment, Taylor shared her qi perception, and Panacea's awareness bloomed with a magnificent wave inwards and outwards.

It was completely unlike the data from her power.

She felt the life energies in the room, the vibrant energy of the earth, and the wondrous glitter of raw starlight energy.

She felt Taylor's qi brimming with vitality and laden with purified ✷ ✷ ✷ ✷, dwarfing her own pitifully struggling qi and the pathetic barely moving qi of Taylor's father.

In that moment she _understood_ what Taylor meant, and she _ư̶̧̱͋̆͌̍ͅn̴̢̯̮̺̣͓̣̒̊͋̚͠͝d̸̯̰̪̦͆̆̐̈́̕͠è̸̙̩̲͎̝̆͒r̸̘͖̙̿̓̀͛͐͆̈́́̏s̵͙̙̃̐̈́̊̓͋̚̕͝͠t̴̳̣͓̘̙͍̮͓͋̅̎̑o̶͕͉̝̎̾̍ͅö̶̻̲̱̼̪͚̪́̅̏̿͊͂̎d̸̢̛̳̅̈́͊̏̈́͐͑́̊_ so much more.

She knew without a doubt that Taylor's words were genuine, she _felt_ the magnitude of Taylor's pain and gratitude.

In her mind's eye, she saw an unforgettable beautiful red star in the sky, and somehow she knew that the star represented Taylor, her f̷̝̣̝̽̈́̽͛̊̀̔͘a̴̹͕̳̲̟̾̂̌̑͗̂̕t̶̺̉e̵͚͈͇͒̇̾̒̔̑̐̈́̇͘ and her ̧͍͕͙̬̮d̸͚̻̗̦͕̝̪̖̭̐́̈́̅̿̋͝e̶͖͉̟̲͊̒͗̔̀̉̓͘͝͝ş̶̛͉̥͇͆͆̈́̏̚͝ͅt̷̖͇̰̗͎̖̝͐̃̾̃͠i̷̡̦̠̞͈̜̹̠͂̅̉̆̀̕ͅn̵̘̱̲̣̙͎̼̗̉́͂̃͛̾͘͝ÿ̴̭͚̯͙͖̞̈̄̀̚͠͠, her bond and her will, her weakness and her strength.

She had the curious thought that if she looked up in the night, she would be able to pick out that star from the countless stars in the sky and know which belonged to Taylor.

Even though she did not understand why, she knew that Taylor had given her something precious beyond measure, the knowledge of a secret forbidden to any but one whom Taylor trusted utterly.

Suddenly the feeling ended and Taylor pulled away.

Panacea felt tears streaming down her face inexplicably.

"W-what was that?" She whispered with both longing and fear.

"That was my spirit sense. I shared it with you so that you could know me as I know myself," Taylor said, smiling softly.

The healer felt her cheeks and ears burning again. Did this girl not realize what she was saying and the effect it was having on her? How could she continuously spout such cheesy lines without any romantic intentions?

At the thought of that, Panacea felt an inkling of disappointment and shame.

By the shared emotions of that moment, Panacea knew that Taylor didn't mean anything other than the literal meaning of her words. There was no lust or ulterior motive.

But why was she disappointed? Her love belonged only to Vicky.

Yet, in that moment, there was a feeling she couldn't turn away from, a sense of comfort that only Taylor gave her—

—she knew Taylor and she knew how Taylor knew her through the flow of her qi and her ș̵̢̡͉̯̰͇͎͕̈́̿̓p̵͈̆̓͑̃̓̃̈͝ī̶̼̆̄̋̅̈́͛̒r̷̟͇̰͐̃ͅi̴̛̳̲̭̥̯͎̳̿̓̀́͑̉̚͝ţ̶̬̜̓͑̈́͠ ̶̨̰̄̋́̀̚s̵̘͖̭͔͈͠ę̸̭͚͍͍͚̬̙̆̉̐̾̂̉͘͠͝͝ͅă̷̧̛̪͎̘̼̲̝͗͊̊̈̇̒̕—

—the absolute certainty with which Taylor determined—

— _You are a good person._


	2. Spirit 1-2

**Spirit 1.2**

The flustered Panacea quickly tried to escape after citing the need to get back home, as Taylor was fully healed already.

"We will meet again. I will find you in three days' time, so that I can begin to repay the debt I owe you for saving me tonight."

"You don't have to repay anything, I don't need a reward for healing."

"Even so, I wish to repay you. At the very least, please allow me to heal you as you have done for me," said Taylor.

"Heal me? You can heal too?" Panacea's curiosity came back in full force.

"Not right now. It will take me three more days to recover enough before I can perform any healing,"

"But you're not a parahuman…are you?" The parahuman biology expert could not deny what she felt during the shared senses, but she also knew that all parahumans had a common brain feature that Taylor lacked. The two facts could not be reconciled, unless Taylor had a Stranger power to fool her own.

Taylor's eyes twinkled in amusement. "I am neither a parahuman nor a regular mortal, but it would be difficult to explain what I am without first explaining many other things. If you are interested in learning, I am willing to teach you."

' _Teach me?_ _She's a Trump too?_ ' Panacea was alarmed. What if the so-called spirit sense was a way to Master her? There was a known Trump and Master called Teacher in the Birdcage that could give other people powers.

"I'll think about it, thanks. I really should get going now." She stepped back.

"Very well. You don't need to decide now. I will heal you regardless, and you may seek me whenever you wish."

Panacea nodded and turned, leaving without providing contact information. Taylor watched her and knew that the healer had no intention of taking up her offer, but that was of no consequence.

Taylor didn't particularly need a disciple. And as for the healing…normally the spirit sense was not advanced enough during Purification stage to accurately track spiritual or qi signatures, but because Taylor projected it directly into Panacea and touched her spirit sea, that wouldn't be a problem for her.

O O O

Hours passed in silence as Taylor sat in meditative pose and continuously performed the motions instructed in the scripture. Her hands were raised in front of her abdomen, curled over each other as if holding an invisible ball of energy between them.

The act of drawing starlight was very quick, but true cultivation was no easy task. Even as her body was healed, she needed to seek control over the star essence and her own qi, using external motions to guide the flow because her spirit sense could not control them directly.

That was a fundamental component of the Purification stage.

In the general theory of cultivation, it was said that Purification was still a preparatory stage on the path to seeking the Dao.

Every aspiring cultivator had to study intensively and practice meditation both moving and still. To realize the truth that the Dao existed in all things, to be enlightened in the duality of motion and stillness, and recognize the mysterious Dao of the twofold mystery.

Only when a cultivator had sufficiently grasped the nature of the world and themselves would they finally be able to gather their spirit sea and complete Spirit Forming. Those who lacked even a Spirit could not perceive the Dao at all – they could at best be mortals aware of the word and vernacular definition of the Dao.

Next, it was necessary to centre the cultivator within the Dao. The orthodox way was to link with a star, but there were other esoteric ways Taylor was not familiar with. Some cultivators used volcanos, oceans, forests, or other earthly phenomena. This step was called Star Designation or Foundation.

Finally the cultivator would build up essence and begin to purify the physical self. This was known as Essence Cleansing, and it was possible to accomplish with earthly energies as well as starlight.

The completion of all three steps of the Purification stage would give the cultivator the ability to consciously control qi with their spirit, expand the spirit sense, and break through mortal physical limits.

Taylor was still in the last step. Merely allowing the star essence to cleanse her body was not sufficient. If she wanted to continue cultivating efficiently the next night, the star essence had to integrate and settle properly in her body.

She slept only three hours and woke in the morning. After Danny gave her a long hug, she was released from the hospital.

She was given a doctor's note to take a week off school for recovery purposes and health monitoring.

On the way back home, Danny continuously glanced at her, hoping she would be willing to tell him everything, but she stayed silent and he didn't push her.

Danny made breakfast and they ate in silence.

"Taylor, I know it must be hard for you, but I want you to know that I'm here to listen if you need me. I know I haven't been a good father to you, but I love you and I want to help. We are going to find out who did this, and we'll make things right, I promise," he said.

Taylor looked at him with an unchanging expression. After her meditation last night, her emotions were back under control.

She knew that she could not blame Danny for his failures. He might be her dad, but he was only a mortal.

"I know who did it," she said.

Danny's eyes widened, but his taut face relaxed in relief. He had thought Taylor was still in shock and unresponsive.

"You do? Who was it? Once we talk to the police we'll send them to juvie!" He was already told yesterday that detectives would be visiting them sometime today after Taylor was healed.

"Sophia Hess, Madison Clements…and Emma Barnes."

"What? Emma Barnes? But I thought she was your best friend! How could she?!"

And so Taylor told him of the year long bullying, and Emma's betrayal. Danny listened with a growing inner rage.

"So that bastard Alan's been protecting her? I really misjudged him," Danny said quietly, his rage turning into a cold fury. His fist was clenched on the dining table as he resisted the urge to smash something.

"I doubt that Alan knows of it, or the rest of the Barneses."

"But he should have known! He's her father! And we were practically one family! And why didn't the school report any of this to me?"

"Emma is a very good liar. There was never any solid evidence, so the school didn't believe me. Even the locker, I doubt anybody will come forward to be a witness. The rest of the students are either part of the bullying or too scared of becoming victims themselves. The investigation won't go anywhere."

"But that's…we can't just let them get away with this! I'll sue the school! They're still responsible for letting it happen!"

Taylor put her hand over Danny's shaking fist.

"Dad. You don't have to worry about it. They won't get away with it. I know what to do, so please trust me."

"Taylor…you shouldn't have to handle this yourself. I'm your dad. It's my responsibility."

"I know. But, can you wait a little? I want to talk to Emma myself and find out the truth. Give me a week. Then you can think about suing the school."

Danny saw the strength in Taylor's eyes and decided to trust her. "Alright," he said with a sigh.

O O O

As Taylor predicted, the detectives were not optimistic. She showed them her journal, but they shook their head and simply said, "We want to help, but there's just not enough hard evidence for this case. The school won't say anything, the students aren't coming forward, it's just your word against theirs. We'll keep trying…but unless someone fesses up, it doesn't look good."

Danny almost shouted at them but Taylor held him back. The detectives weren't being difficult, it was the case that was difficult.

The next couple of days passed quickly as Taylor continued to privately cultivate and look up the existence of cultivation on Earth-Bet.

She had known about qi, chi or ki, as it was variously called before, but she had always thought it was metaphorical. Martial artists and eastern medicine traditions spoke of it, but there had never been any real evidence for it in the scientific community, not like parahuman powers.

But with half her soul coming from a world where cultivation was very much real, she decided to take a closer look, and see if there was anything hidden. It was something of particular interest because she already knew that spiritual energies were much more sparse on Earth-Bet, and spirit beasts did not exist.

This meant that a great deal of alchemical recipes would lack the appropriate ingredients.

It was not a fatal problem, as elixirs were only supplementary, not required for cultivation, but it was definitely an annoyance that would slow down her cultivation speed.

What she found through researching at the library and on the internet was intriguing.

There were ancient texts that contained many of the same concepts she was familiar with. Some could even be conceivably used as a basic cultivation manual. Other texts had even specific techniques which she had learned, such as the Nine Needles Art that was found in the Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine.

The issue with these was that there were missing descriptions of certain aspects of cultivation that made the instructions highly ineffective.

Nowhere did she find anything about how to complete Spirit Forming or establishing the destiny link, for example, or the fact that those not yet in the Meditation stage simply _couldn't_ control qi.

Certain movements such as in Tai Ji Quan could certainly cause qi cycling internally, but simply cycling qi itself was not cultivation. Without connecting to the greater Dao and mixing energies to create essence, the benefits of cycling qi were minimal.

And if you couldn't expel qi externally into the needles, acupuncture could at best manipulate only the nervous system, and at worst cause serious damage.

On the other hand, this suggested that there may have genuinely been some cultivators in the past or even now.

But as it was, it could only be an idle curiosity. None of it helped her find more suitable ingredients, and any other cultivators who couldn't even use qi properly were far less of a threat to her than capes.

The third night after her rebirth, she was secretly out of the house and standing close to edge of the docks, overseeing the ocean.

The lightly falling snowflakes of winter grew in size and speed.

Were she a cultivator reaching the peak of Purification for the first time, she would have to exhaust herself until her meridians were forcefully opened.

However, her meridians were already opened when her body was strained to its limits in the locker and she was on the edge of death.

Therefore, to break through, all she needed was to finish Essence Cleansing.

Far away, the currents of the sea shifted slightly.

Once again the starlight energy filtered into her body. Star essence condensed and flowed through her, enhancing her body.

All of her Twelve Principal Meridians were channeling the star essence furiously and circulating qi into the Eight Profound Meridians.

The Absolute Yin was a type of physique that was both a blessing and a curse. It was the highest possible form of Pure Yin, the quality of such a level that it was "absolute". Similar to the corresponding opposite Pure Yang, a Pure Yin body possessed meridians that specially channeled yin energy at an extraordinary efficiency.

Sheer cold swept through the coast towards Brockton Bay, and a blizzard formed.

Dao was split into Yin and Yang, two concepts borne of the same origin. All things were possessed of both yin and yang qualities; qi and essence were no exception. Yet, while different, they were also the same. What is yin is also yang, and what is yang is also yin. The two only differed by observation and not by nature.

Taylor's Absolute Yin let her cultivate at an incredible speed, but it was also a terrible weakness.

The Heavens demand balance in all things, and one with such potential to break the balance could not be allowed.

That was her curse.

Her fate.

Clouds ran over each other as a storm of hail and frost attacked the docks.

Despite the wide area of destruction, Taylor was clearly the target, and she was forced to dance through the ridiculous soccer ball sized hail crashing down, each landing with enough force to shatter the ground, leaving small craters in their wake.

Frozen snowflakes cut across her skin furiously and inches of snow on the ground gathered within minutes of the storm appearing.

Suddenly she was struck by a bolt of lightning.

Moving at almost 1/3rd the speed the light, the bolt was unavoidable for Taylor's current level of cultivation.

The lightning shocked through her body, hit the ice and snow, and flashed through the whole area as several more bolts joined it.

Taylor's skin was melting from the extreme heat, her internal organs only resisting with star essence and qi.

"AHHHHH!" She screamed in pain but the sound was drowned out by the thunder that followed the lightning.

If another cultivator saw this, they would be stupefied by the scale of the heavenly tribulation of a cultivator who was merely breaking through to Meditation.

Not only was heavenly tribulation highly unusual to appear at all for this stage, it was not supposed to be so strong if it did appear. This was already close to a true heavenly tribulation at the end of the Meditation stage, except the lightning was only regular lightning.

When the lightning stopped, Taylor fell to her knees. The ground was blackened for a hundred meters in diameter, and nearby building structures had been devastated. She had specifically picked this abandoned docks area because she knew what might happen.

Yet tired as she was, she had survived and her meridians were finally advanced enough to bind to her spirit sense.

The qi in her body responded to her will and flooded every damaged organ, guiding the star essence.

More starlight energy streamed into her, the quantity an order of magnitude greater than before when her qi could not be controlled.

Star essence was crystallized and integrated rapidly, and even more qi was generated in her meridians to repeat the cycle, and her whole body glowed in an ethereal aura. Black dust dispersed to the air from her skin. It was impossible to know if it was ash created by the lightning, or some other impurity within her body that was expelled.

She stood back up and flexed her muscles, reveling in the comforting presence of her qi.

Purification was complete.


	3. Spirit 1-3

**Spirit 1.3**

She dashed away and disappeared into the night like a silent shadow.

With qi empowering her feet and muffling the sound, her Twilight Steps movement technique let her clear the whole area of destruction in less than three seconds.

The difference between a cultivator in the Meditation stage compared to one of the Purification stage was like heaven and earth.

Sometimes these stages were called realms, because they were metaphorically worlds apart in lower stages, then literally worlds apart at higher stages.

As she advanced further in Meditation, eventually she would breakthrough again to higher stages, each one separated by a transformative characteristic or power that completely outclasses the previous stage.

In Meditation, that unique characteristic was the ability to control qi directly.

But advancing and breaking through would also become increasingly difficult. If any other cultivator knew that she cleared Purification in just three days, it would have become a legendary feat.

Other cultivators would have taken months even with extreme talent, or years with average talent.

She could only cultivate so quickly because she had done it all before and even skipped two steps, on top of her Absolute Yin and her heaven-defying cultivation method in the Eternal Star Enlightenment Path.

In less than ten minutes, she tracked down the spiritual signature of Panacea at her house.

Although her spirit sense only expanded to a primary range of about a block, she now had a secondary range extending ten times farther in which the resolution of sensing was drastically lower. Within the secondary range, she could not distinguish individuals from one another or groups, unless they had an especially potent qi or spiritual signature. Or, unless she had specially marked them with her spirit sense up close.

That was how she narrowed down the direction of Panacea, then approached until she was in her primary range.

She scaled the house walls and entered Panacea's room through the window, silently landing beside her bed.

Panacea shuffled around on the bed without waking.

Taylor walked around the school curiously. She did not touch anything and only looked.

In the cultivation world, she rarely stayed in one place with a room of her own for long. Even within the sect, she cared only for cultivating as fast as possible, and her room reflected that utilitarian mindset.

She did not have any friends close enough who would invite her to their own rooms, either male or female.

On Earth-Bet, she had been to Emma's room, and once decorated her own room with posters of her cape idols, stuffed animals, artworks, books, and inspirational quotes.

Emma's room also had the same cape posters and stuffed animals, but she kept a lot of cosmetics, fashion magazines, and a whole makeup table and mirror as well that Taylor didn't have.

She didn't know what to expect from Panacea's room, but now that she had seen it, it was…strikingly similar to her own room after got depressed when her mom died.

At first she kept everything that reminded her of mom, but after the first couple of weeks she took them down to stop getting emotional every time she saw the books and inspirational quotes.

Eventually she removed almost everything. The books were put into a corner instead of being kept on display. The quote posters were filed away, and only a few paintings were left. Then when she got depressed again with Emma betraying her, she removed the cape posters and stuffed animals too and she never replaced them.

Panacea's room was empty of decorations except a few potted plants. There were no cosmetics or fashion magazines, no art and no posters.

There was a shelf of books. Stacks upon stacks of advanced textbooks, reference books, and research journals. They covered biology, medical and health sciences, chemistry, neuroscience, and a whole bunch of fields Taylor didn't even recognize. She saw what must have been hundreds of individual notes tucked in between, and at least ten notebooks strewn about the shelf and her desk. Her school work was neatly set to one side and clearly delineated from all the other stuff she studied.

It was a bit messy, but not the careless kind of messy. It was the kind Taylor saw at her dad's office when he was overwhelmed with too much work.

But why did Panacea have all this stuff? Even as a miracle healer, she was still in high school. Did she need to study all this in order to heal?

Taylor was no stranger to the mountain of knowledge that had to be studied to practice medicine, but she had been under the impression that Panacea's power just did all the healing for her, and couldn't be used for anything but healing.

But for her to study the science like this, did that not imply that she had to _direct_ the biological and chemical processes involved?

She looked over an open notebook and a few printouts on the desk.

 _Novel gene candidates in redox balance GSG/GSSG homeostasis_

 _Two-stage induction of the soxRS superoxide response regulon_

She could not begin to understand what these research papers were describing. Then she looked over the open notebook.

An entire page of notes full of similar terminology that barely looked like English to her eyes. Defeated, she looked at the single line at the end, labeled "Conclusion".

 _No known biochemical mechanism exists to sustain an equilibrium of protonated superoxide below 0.05% of cytosolic_ O2•− _across 30 trillion somatic cells. I did not subconsciously finish healing Taylor, she healed herself by unknown means. A Brute power or Breaker state?_

Taylor's eyes widened in stupefaction.

Panacea was researching the scientific mechanisms of her Essence Cleansing?

It would appear that she left a bigger impact on her saviour than she thought. She walked over to the bed and gazed upon the sleeping Panacea.

She saw the tense expression on her face heard the light snoring that indicated improper sleep patterns. Over the last three days Taylor had researched into Panacea as well, discovering that the healer did not volunteer much more than a few hours per day. The reality was that her exhaustion didn't come from simple overwork, but the timing of her work and the supplementary study she had to do, as Taylor realized.

Her hospital volunteering schedule was publicized on the New Wave website, but she was also "on-call" to help the PRT and Protectorate for emergencies, the majority of which happened late at night. She also had to help Protectorate heroes coming from out-of-town due to debilitating injuries other Protectorate healers couldn't handle.

If she controlled biology directly, then she would have had to be educated as much as a real doctor or more, depending on just how granular her control went. Whereas normal doctors and surgeons dealt with drugs, injections, surgeries, Panacea might have to coordinate trillions of cells and their biochemical processes.

The amount of data she would have to be processing was mind-boggling. Comparable to the information processed by a spirit sense of a peak Star Condensation level cultivator, perhaps even higher if she perceived individual genes and molecules. When did Panacea get started on healing? Did she condense over a decade of higher learning, doctorate-level knowledge, into just a few years?

Taylor took out a rectangular case and placed it on Panacea's nightstand, opening it to reveal nine stainless steel needles.

Then she took out a wood and steel harmonica, and touched it to her lips.

She knelt down until she was level with Panacea's head. Then she breathed softly through the harmonica.

A slow, light melody emanated from the instrument.

The warm vibrato interspersed with soft trilling quickly brought Panacea's snoring to a halt.

Although Taylor was only an amateur in the Dao of music, she could at least do this much. Music was a highly developed art in the cultivation world and popular as a primary cultivation Dao, but Taylor herself never practiced it for much more than the purpose of defending herself from musical attacks.

A primary cultivation Dao was what cultivators called their main skill or tool used in combat or whatever else they did as a profession. The popular ones typically had a strong focus in combat applications, such as sword or archery. Music was slightly inferior in combat but its versatility out of combat made up for its deficiencies.

Then she put away the harmonica and pressed two fingers to Panacea's wrist.

She allowed her spirit sense to focus in on the state of Panacea's body, and felt her patient's connection to the Dao described by the rhythm of the heartbeat.

The diagnosis was quick, as she had already done this before, if with a lesser spirit sense.

Panacea's body was physically fine and mostly healthy. The turbulence in her qi was reflective of the mental stresses on her, and of an improper circadian rhythm. If she got more regular sleep she would likely be one of the healthiest people in Brockton Bay.

But mind and spirit were connected, and eventually the stresses would leak over to her physical body. In fact, the symptoms Taylor read from her seemed to show that her body should have begun to deteriorate some time ago. The fatigue and depression Panacea suffered from typically caused weakening immune systems, reduced appetites, and a host of other related issues in mortals. Taylor could only surmise that Panacea's power had a hand in keeping her body healthy.

Nevertheless, Taylor got to work. She lifted Panacea's shirt carefully to reveal the skin underneath. With a quick motion, three needles pierced in to three different spots around Panacea's abdominal area. Her spirit sense felt Panacea's qi suddenly stilling. Another three needles were placed down, one at the chest, and two below the collar bone.

Panacea's qi flowed again, this time with Taylor's own qi at the six needle points guiding, the flow forming a microcosmic orbit.

Finally, the last three needles were placed, two on the sides of the neck, and one at the top of her head.

The qi circulating below filtered steadily towards her brain, and after a few minutes of waiting, Taylor felt that the balance of yin and yang qualities had been restored.

At the nine minute mark, Taylor removed the first needle. At ten minutes, she removed the second needle. At eleven, she removed the third, and so on until at the eighteenth minute, the final needle at the top of Panacea's head was removed, and all of the needles were purified with Taylor's qi before they were placed back in the case.

She waited another ten minutes before touching the sleeping girl's wrist again, and felt that all was well. The minuscule needle punctures would heal quickly with the residual qi left by Taylor.

Satisfied, Taylor left a note for Panacea and went on her way.

O O O

" _Do you think Taylor's going to come back? It's almost been a week."_

" _Who cares about that loser? She's probably too scared to show her face."_

" _Yeah, you're probably right," said Emma. She watched Stalker grab her equipment from the stash._

" _Fuck, I'm so bored. There'd better be a good fight tonight."_

 _They flitted through the alleyways and rushed towards the source of the screams._

 _The two of them hid nearby and watched the scene. A group of gangers beating up what looked to be a teenage girl about their age and were laughing uproariously._

" _This weakling isn't even trying to fight back," Sophia said harshly._

" _Hey…doesn't that look like Taylor?" Emma whispered, squinting her eyes._

" _Huh…I think you're right."_

 _Emma watched with wide eyes as two of the gangers held Taylor down and the others nodded to each other._

" _T-they're going to…!" Emma shook Sophia with panic._

" _Tch. What're you getting worked up for? Serves her right for being weak," Stalker said and pushed her hand off._

 _Suddenly all of the men froze on the spot, as if time itself had stopped. Emma watched the eerily silent scene as Taylor slowly got up and brushed away the hands holding her down._

" _It was your bad luck that you met me this night…but it was your own choice that led to this end," the calm voice of Taylor resounded in the alley._

 _The moonlight dimmed, heavy shadow falling across the figures frozen in the night, obscuring them from view._

 _Emma heard the sound of metal sliding in the deep darkness._

 _A shrill scream erupted as the shadows receded, revealing Taylor standing in the same position, a bloody sword in hand, her white and blue robes glowing pristine, surrounded by five pairs of legs standing without upper bodies._

 _A lone ganger collapsed backwards on his bottom, his face an expression of sheer terror, shaking as he stared at the bodies strewn about._

" _P-please, spare me, I don't want to die!" He pleaded with a shaking voice._

 _She swept aside her blade and the blood flew off cleanly._

" _Have you finally comprehended your mortality? What a pity. You are already dead." She slid her sword back into its sheath and the sound of metal ringing reverberated as if signaling the finality of her pronouncement._

 _The torso of the last ganger split diagonally and fell off._

" _What the fuck…?" Sophia's voice came from Emma's right. "Shit, that was actually badass. This is Taylor fucking Hebert?"_

 _Emma couldn't tear her eyes away from Taylor, whose face slowly turned to meet her own._

 _She felt her throat constricting and a terrible pressure weighed down on her from all sides._

" _T-the fuck, I can't mo—!" Sophia's angry voice rang out, and Emma's eyes darted over just in time to see a glint of silver cutting off whatever Sophia was going to say, two barely visible needles piercing into her neck._

 _Just as she was about to say something and reach out to Sophia, Emma realized she also felt a prickle at her neck while the rest of her body refused to budge._

" _Emma…" A soft whisper filtered through her ears. "Why did you betray me?"_

 _Then Shadow Stalker phased into her shadow form momentarily, the needles falling away._

 _Before she could even process it, Stalker was back to her normal state, barely a step from her frozen position, with Taylor holding a sword that pierced through her heart._

 _The sword was drawn back, and she slid off the end, lying dead with disbelieving eyes on the ground._

 _Taylor walked over and tenderly touched Emma's cheek._

" _Why, Emma? Why?"_

 _She stared into the pained eyes of the friend she betrayed, and felt the tears sliding down._

 _The prickle at her neck went away, and Taylor grabbed onto her head with both hands and brushed away her tears with her thumbs._

" _She's gone now, so you can tell me. Emma, why did you do it?"_

" _I—I—I'm…sorry…" She stammered but couldn't find the right words to explain._

 _Then her body's paralysis was removed, and Taylor embraced her in a hug._

" _It's alright Emma, you know I can never hate you. I just want to know the truth," Taylor whispered soothingly to her._

 _Emma melted into the embrace and sobbed uncontrollably. "S-she said I was a s-survivor, I w-was st-strong because I f-fought back, a-and I w-wanted to make her s-see that you w-were strong too, l-like me, I w-wanted to m-make you stronger, a survivor…!"_

 _Emma felt her chin being lifted up and Taylor's empathetic eyes looked into hers. "I understand, Emma. Thank you."_

 _Suddenly Taylor's face moved towards hers and their lips were pressed together. In her shock, she pushed against Taylor, but Taylor's grip was too strong, and she relented. Then she closed her eyes in relief and clung onto Taylor desperately, She had waited for this moment for so long, and it was finally here—_

 _Somehow she heard Taylor's voice even through the kiss._

" _You've been a bad girl, Emma, so I have to punish you, and make sure you never get away from me again. You understand, don't you?"_

 _She wanted to say yes, but she didn't want to stop the wonderful kiss. She simply grabbed onto Taylor even more tightly._

 _Then an excruciating pain shocked her into screaming, but for some reason she couldn't open her eyes._

" _You won't need these legs anymore."_

 _That was followed by another round of excruciating pain, this time emanating from her shoulders._

" _Or these arms either, really." Her scream increased in pitch until she couldn't hear it anymore._

" _You're so beautiful, Emma. Now you can stay with me forever."_

O O O

Taylor curiously observed the paralyzed girl attempting to scream with no sound coming out of her throat. She wondered what kind of nightmare had been inflicted on Emma as she put away her harmonica and lifted the needles embedded into Emma's neck.

Emma's eyes flew open and she gasped.

"Hah...ah…" Her eyes darted about in the darkness and recognized the walls of her room before softening. "J-just a dream…" She reached to rub her sore throat.

Then she realized she couldn't move. Her breath hitched as she felt prickles at various points on her body, almost as if needles were pierced into them.

Her eyes widened as she noticed a shadow rising from the left.

"Hello, Emma."

Taylor's face peered back at her.

She tried to scream again, only to feel her mouth frozen as two needles sank back into her neck.


	4. Spirit 1-4

**Spirit 1.4**

"Don't look so terrified, Emma. I'm not going to hurt you. Much." Taylor said. She gently brushed aside a few stray locks of hair covering Emma's eyes. The wide dilated pupils revealed Emma's state of mind.

Taylor sighed and removed the needles paralyzing Emma. A sharp pain spiked in each of the punctured areas, eliciting a whimper from the girl lying in bed. It wasn't a deliberate choice to make it painful for her, but Taylor saw no need to waste qi soothing the puncture points in this case. They would heal on their own even without her input, it would merely take longer.

"You can move now. I came here to talk, Emma."

Emma shifted her limbs carefully and visibly relaxed when she realized she was no longer paralyzed. She touched a hand to rub her throat as she swallowed.

"Is it really you, Taylor?"

"I'm not the Taylor you knew. She died in the locker," Taylor said, with a nonchalant air.

"What?" Emma took in Taylor's features closely, and only now noticed that there was something different about her. Taylor's skin was more pale, her chest revealed no signs of breathing, and she was unnaturally still, with the edges around her frame seemingly colored by a barely visible aura.

"G-ghos—"

"You killed her." Taylor's eyes turned cold and stared right into Emma's.

The red head fell into silence as her eyes widened.

"N-no, you c-can't be dead! Y-you weren't s-supposed to die!" She reached out and grabbed manically for Taylor as her eyes teared up.

Her hands slid off Taylor's body as a thin layer of qi repelled her. "No…how could this happen…? This isn't what I wanted!" She grabbed even more desperately and wrapped her arms around Taylor's neck, clinging onto her and sobbing.

"This isn't what you wanted?" Taylor scoffed, but otherwise remained still while Emma sobbed into her chest. "I thought you made it clear that you hated me. Taylor's just a poor loser that nobody likes. Her own best friend couldn't stand being around her anymore. Shouldn't you be happy to be rid of her?"

Emma drew herself up to Taylor's eye level and shook her head vigorously with wide eyes. "No, no! I didn't mean it, I didn't mean any of it! I'm sorry!"

Suddenly Taylor pushed her down to the bed and loomed over her, eyes furious. She leaned down and in a low voice said, "You betrayed me for your new friend and threw me away like yesterday's trash, you tortured me for a year and a half, you called me names, spread malicious rumors, stole my mother's flute, and schemed to trick me with fake friends to betray me yet again. Then you finally decided to put end to my misery and left me in that locker to die."

She grabbed both of Emma's wrists and bent the other girl's arms up. Through the skin contact, she channeled her qi and spirit sense.

She called up her memories of the locker and sent an echo through her spirit sense and into Emma.

"Ah…please, let me out! H-help!" Emma found herself in the locker, trapped with putrid waste and scores of bugs, the hard metal grating on her skin. It was barely a few moments before she retched.

Taylor quickly hit a few of Emma's pressure points to disrupt the involuntary contractions Emma was undergoing. She watched quietly until Emma's retching motions stopped.

"Why did you do it then?"

Emma whimpered and cried without answering. Taylor simply waited patiently for an answer.

After several minutes, Emma found the courage to speak again, if only in a barely audible voice. "It was to prove that you were strong, that you were a survivor like me and Sophia."

Taylor stared at her for a moment. "And none of it was because you wanted to make yourself feel stronger?"

"I…" Emma swallowed and couldn't respond.

"Hahaha…hahahaha!" Taylor laughed suddenly, sending chills down Emma's spine.

"You're just pitiful. How confused and warped you have become, Emma." She released Emma and stood up.

Emma closed her eyes in shame and curled up on the bed as she wiped her tears. The pity that Taylor was showing somehow felt even worse than the nightmare where she lost her limbs. At least the Taylor then understood and accepted her.

"Whatever you intended, it doesn't change what you did to me. I died in the locker…and only by a coincidence…a miracle, I returned from the void between life and death."

The teary girl opened her eyes again and looked towards her former best friend standing above her.

"You…aren't dead?"

"Of course not, did you really think I was a ghost? I am very much alive, yet having traversed the void, I am no longer the Taylor you once knew. I am…lesser…but also greater…"

The pieces finally fell into place for Emma. She had already recognized that Taylor was very different from before, and there were hints that she was not a normal human anymore.

"You, you triggered! You're a cape now." Just as she said that, she felt the same suffocating pressure as in her nightmare, squeezing her from all sides and constricting her breathing. It felt like a dozen swords were being put to her throat, and any movement would lead to her death.

Taylor glared at Emma and focused her sword intent until it became a physical force. Even though she did not have a physical sword, her sword Dao was at such a high level that she did not need a sword in hand to manifest sword intent. While she had lost almost all of her cultivation base upon transmigration, she kept all her Dao comprehension, allowing her to manifest in limited fashion certain abilities which normally could only be executed by higher stage cultivators.

"How do you want to settle this debt, Emma? I suffered a year and a half of torture because of you. I died because of you. Shall I take your life in exchange?"

The pressure lightened, and Emma could breathe again. She looked at Taylor in genuine remorse before closing her eyes again and lowering her head.

"I'm sorry, Taylor. Nothing I can do will make up for what I did. I won't blame you if you want to kill me," Emma said softly.

"Very well. _So I pledge, for all your crimes against me, I shall take your life and be satisfied. I shall not seek redress upon any of your blood or your friends, but for what crimes they themselves commit. Let the heavens be witness_ ," said Taylor in a solemn voice, and touched two fingers to Emma's forehead. " _Do you agree to this, Emma, and willingly offer your life to me_?"

Emma felt Taylor's voice reverberating inside her mind, and a vision of something incomprehensible flashed, she felt a tug from something beyond the skies.

"Yes." She answered, and opened her eyes to look at Taylor one last time, only to startle at the scene before her.

Taylor was enveloped in a faint white glow, her robes lightly fluttering without any wind, and most shockingly, what lay behind her was not the wall of Emma's house, but the black void of space, filled with countless shining dots and a lone moon.

Before she had a chance to process it, a torrent of energy flooded into her, and a profound pain spread across her whole body—no—her soul even, and she collapsed.

Unbeknownst to her, her Eight Profound Meridians had been forced open by Taylor's qi.

" _Then henceforth, your life belongs to me. You will live for me and only me. My destiny is your fate. My fate is your bond."_

Just as suddenly, the pain ended, and was replaced by a deep, pulsing ache, and her vision was replaced by a single shining red star.

Far, far away, an invisible link extended outward from Taylor's star of destiny and found its way to another star.

O O O

"What's your assessment?" Piggot asked. "What happened at the docks tonight?"

Armsmaster stood in Piggot's office in front of her desk. He gestured and a wall screen flashed on.

A frozen grainy video was shown, and Armsmaster pointed to the lone figure standing still at the docks. As he began to explain, the video played and was stopped at various points to highlight Armsmaster's observations.

"This new cape appeared first at the docks, and stood there as if waiting for something. Due to a lack of known capabilities, we have not assigned any cape designation, so I will refer to her as Subject 1. Within ten minutes of her arrival, a concentrated powerful blizzard formed at the docks, with solid hail descending that reached estimated diameters of up to 14 inches. Temperatures in the area dropped to -32 degrees F from -14. Subject 1 skillfully dodged all of the solid hail, and appeared unaffected by the temperature change. While the blizzard covered a wide section of the docks, and wind chills swept through the entire city, the hail was very clearly targeted at Subject 1. Moreover, eight consecutive lightning bolts hit Subject 1 within a span of a few minutes."

He paused and manipulated the video to show the trajectories of the lightning strikes. While a large number of lightning strikes carpet bombed the whole area, there were clearly eight bolts which all hit Subject 1 directly.

"So the storm was unnatural? This was a cape battle against a second cape?" Piggot asked.

Armsmaster manipulated the screen again, showing a weather map of the north east coast of the USA.

"The storm was almost certainly not natural. We have designated the hypothesized second cape as Storm Caller. Tracing the wind movements, we found that early signs of a cold wave were detected hours before the battle at the docks, and there were significant and rapid shifts in the nearby ocean currents. It's still unclear whether the second cape was the source of these movements, or if they simply took advantage of an incoming storm and concentrated it at the docks."

"Either way, Storm Caller is a dangerous Shaker, to be able to launch an attack of this magnitude without revealing their location. But what bothers me most is why did the battle happen at all? The way that Subject 1 waited for the attack makes it almost seem like a scheduled duel, but between two entirely unknown capes? Are they both independent, and are they hero or villain?"

Armsmaster turned off the screen. "We have no leads on their associations and motives. Following the storm, Subject 1 appeared entirely unharmed and left the scene immediately at speeds that indicate a Mover rating. There were no further sightings through the night, so it's unclear if she left in pursuit of Storm Caller's position or simply escaped."

Piggot rubbed her temples. "Keep investigating then. Try to find other signs of large scale weather manipulation. Did you have any luck identifying Subject 1?"

"No. The footage available was from too far away and the blizzard obscured her features. She did not appear to be wearing any mask, however, her features at times appeared blurred even accounting for the low resolution video. After the storm was over, she appeared to be glowing with a faint light. It could be a Stranger power."

"So we have a possible grab bag with Brute, Mover, and Stranger ratings? Maybe even Thinker judging by how she dodged perfectly."

"Yes."

O O O


	5. Spirit 1-5

**Spirit 1.5**

Amy woke up feeling utterly refreshed. As soon as she opened her eyes, she was ready to get out of the bed and face the new day. She sat up and brushed the hair out of her face.

Her eyes blinked a few times. Her alertness was unusual, she decided. It was like she just experienced the best night of sleep she'd ever had.

She turned and let her legs off the side of the bed, reaching out for her handheld mirror on her nightstand.

Then she noticed a folded piece of paper sticking out of the first drawer.

She thought back and didn't remember putting it there. Did Victoria leave a note for her, she wondered. But she couldn't think of any reason her sister wouldn't have simply told her last night. It wasn't her style to leave notes.

She deftly took the note and unfolded it.

 _As promised, I have healed you as you have healed me. You saved my life, and this little bit cannot possibly repay what you have done for me, so I remain in your debt. Please take care to sleep on a more regular schedule, and consider finding time to relax. You were overstressed and sleep-deprived, creating imbalances in your body which might have led to much more serious health complications over time. I restored the balance of yin and yang in your qi but the imbalance will return if you maintain your current habits. If you are in need of further assistance at any time, please call me at ###-###-####. This is my home phone number, so you can leave a message if I don't pick up. When I get a cell, I will notify you immediately._

— _Taylor_

Amy's eyes widened upon reading the note. She quickly shoved the note deep into her drawer.

So that was why she felt so much better this morning. She took the mirror and looked at herself closely. The bags under her eyes were gone, and her skin looked noticeably brighter.

She put the mirror down and stared at her drawer containing the note.

At first she didn't know how to feel about it. Most patients she healed never really gave anything back to her in exchange. Some gave her cards, or tokens of appreciation, but none had given her anything of actual substance until now.

But she also never consented to being healed. Was it even just healing, or something altogether more sinister? Sometimes she was really frustrated with her patients that refused to let her heal them, especially that one patient who threatened to sue before she started to always ask for consent. But now that she was the one being healed, she better understood how they felt.

She shuddered and blushed, thinking of what might have been done to her while she slept.

' _But I kind of did give consent, didn't I? She told me she would heal me and I nodded. I didn't exactly say no…'_

She didn't expect the girl to come in the middle of the night to heal her while she wasn't conscious, when she didn't even leave any contact information.

As she got up to do her morning routine before school, she had only one thought on her mind.

' _Does this mean I have a stalker?'_

O O O

"Are you alright, Ames? You've been awfully quiet today. More so than usual, I mean," said Vicky shortly after they landed in front of the school.

"Y-yeah, I'm fine. Nothing wrong at all," Amy said quickly, looking away from Vicky's inquiring eyes.

"Huh. That's a mighty suspicious answer, you know?" Vicky stepped around to face her.

"No, no, I'm really fine. More than fine, actually. I feel great!" Amy said, smiling awkwardly.

"You're hiding something…"

Amy sighed. "Vicky, please…" She kept walking forward.

"Well, I'll admit, you _do_ look great today. Happier, too. Must be something good then!" Vicky followed after and quickly got back beside her. "Let me guess, you met someone? A boy you actually like?"

"Wh-what? No way!" Amy's panicked expression merely served to confirm Victoria's thoughts.

"Oh Ames, I'm so happy for you! It's about time!" Vicky gave Amy a hug. "Guess I can cancel the double date tomorrow."

Victoria was ignorant of the rapid thoughts that flew through Amy's mind. The hug was raising all sorts of emotions that Amy didn't know how to handle. It felt wonderful, but Amy knew that Vicky didn't feel the same way about her. She had a boyfriend, after all.

Amy was torn between her guilt for thinking her incestuous thoughts, and the need to correct Victoria's misunderstanding. There was nobody else in Amy's heart. A girl she just met a few days ago couldn't possibly replace her feelings for Victoria.

"It's really not like that…"

Heedless of Amy's protests, Vicky continued after releasing the hug. "Actually, why don't you bring him along? I'll tell Dean not to bring the other guy, but we can still have a double date! I'd love to know who managed to get your attention, after all those guys you rejected."

"No, I can't! We aren't dating!" Amy immediately replied, then immediately regretted it.

Victoria's head flashed around and there was a glint in her eyes that said 'I got you!'

"I knew it! You really did meet someone!" She exclaimed victoriously. "So tell me, who is it?"

"Nope, no way! You're misunderstanding!" Amy clamped down and quickly rushed off.

" _Ames_!" Victoria groaned. "Come on! You can tell me!"

"Not a chance!"

O O O

Taylor skulked in the shadows and observed the person of interest.

The target of her observations made her way through the crowds of students and sat down in a classroom.

Taylor hid atop a tree in the courtyard, watching closely for potential threats.

It was boring, mind-numbing work, but she had little else to do at the moment, and she was used such things. There were not likely to be any real threats in the school, but she couldn't make much progress with cultivation for a short period after breaking through to a new stage.

It took a bit of time for her body to fully stabilize in the new stage, so it was not efficient to do heavy training for a few days.

Instead, she trained her spirit sense. While the spirit sense grew alongside her base cultivation, it was also possible to train it separately.

For example, while she had a primary sense range of around two hundred meters in radius and a secondary range of two kilometers, that didn't mean she had total clairvoyance over the area. Far from it, in fact.

It just meant that she could attempt to sense other qi and spiritual signatures within those ranges, and be aware of significant shifts and movements.

There were easily over a thousand students in the school, and she did not have the capability to individually perceive them all simultaneously even within her primary range, or even count the total number of complex lifeforms. Currently she could only directly sense the signatures of those marked, like Panacea. Everyone else in her primary range she had to focus in on to clearly distinguish from one another, while in her secondary range she couldn't clearly distinguish individuals from one another at all. She also couldn't perceive inanimate objects yet except walls and floors by extrapolation.

Her sense focus took time and was limited in quantity, which is what she was training in.

Over the next few hours, she eventually determined several other abnormally strong qi signatures within the student body. She counted at least five notable signatures besides Panacea, and including Panacea's sister whom she saw flying Panacea to the school. It was still possible that there were more she failed to detect.

She mentally went through the list of Wards she was aware of. Rumors were that the Wards all attended Arcadia. There were five Wards of the appropriate age, so the number of notable qi signatures, after removing Glory Girl from the count, didn't match the number of Wards. There were a few different possibilities then.

The first was simply that stronger qi signatures didn't necessarily imply that they were capes or that capes necessarily had stronger qi signatures than usual.

The second was that not all the Wards were in Arcadia as the rumors said.

The third was that she simply didn't find all the signatures yet.

It mattered little regardless, however. She did not particularly care to identify the Wards or get involved with them. Her only aim was to change her fate before time ran out. This was little more than a training exercise for her to develop her spirit sense and better understand the nature of cape powers.

The rest of the school day passed peacefully as Taylor continued her spirit sense. She did not find any more strong qi signatures within the school.

O O O

Taylor watched from a nearby rooftop as Panacea exited the school with her sister and a boy in tow. The boy was one of the five notable qi signatures Taylor detected earlier.

She observed closely and saw that Panacea appeared unhappy. Her qi had signs of imbalance again. How could it have changed so soon?

As the three walked away, Taylor followed closely behind them, but always staying out of sight.

As she continued to observe, she noticed the glares that Panacea occasionally gave that boy whenever he wasn't looking.

After about ten minutes of walking, the three of them walked into an alleyway with a dead end and turned around.

"Come out. We know you're there," the boy called out.

Taylor stayed hidden and didn't react.

"Look, you've been following us since school was over. I don't know why, but whatever it is you want from us, I think we can try to resolve things peacefully. Let's just talk face to face, alright?"

Experienced in such matters, Taylor still didn't move. He might have been bluffing still, or there might actually have been somebody else also following them with powers that hid them from Taylor's spirit sense somehow.

"We know you're hiding on the rooftop to our left. So are you going to come out, or do we need to come to you? You do realize that Glory Girl here can just fly up to you, right?"

So it was her they detected after all. That was intriguing to her. She had thought herself well hidden, perhaps not with any advanced stealth techniques active, but still good enough that a mere mortal couldn't have noticed without significant training in counter-tracking.

She acknowledged his skills mentally and decided to show herself.

O O O

The whole day had been very stressful for Amy. Victoria just wouldn't stop pestering her about who had supposedly captured her heart. There was nothing to reveal, because Amy didn't like anybody but Victoria!

However, Victoria didn't relent and even got her boyfriend Dean to try to figure things out. Dean, always acting like a gentleman, naturally rebuffed Victoria's attempts and tried to assure Amy that he would not pry into her secrets. Amy hated how fake he was. He could read her like an open book with his emotion reading power, so what need did he have to pry?

Eventually school was over and Victoria forced her to hang out with her and Dean, probably in the hopes of learning more about the mysterious person who they believed Amy was smitten with.

As much as she didn't want to be around Dean, she couldn't deny a request from her sister to hang out. At least she could keep an eye on Dean and make him uncomfortable with doing anything overly affectionate with Victoria. She knew that Dean knew about her intense dislike of him and his status as Victoria's boyfriend.

Then Dean suddenly whispered to them that they were being followed. That immediately made her very concerned, a concern that her sister clearly shared, judging by the momentary flaring of her aura.

Years ago, when New Wave had went public with their identities, one of their members was attacked in her civilian identity and killed.

That assailant was executed by the E88, whom the assailant had hoped the killing would impress. After that, there were no more attempts to attack them in their civilian identity, but the possibility of a repeat incident couldn't be ruled out.

There was also the possibility of a villain that was desperate to get Panacea's healing services and couldn't go to her when she volunteered her services at the hospital.

Either way, there would probably be a fight, and Dean, being in his civilian identity, wouldn't be able to help without exposing his own cape identity.

"We know you're hiding on the rooftop to our left. So are you going to come out, or do we need to come to you? You do realize that Glory Girl here can just fly up to you, right?" Dean called out one last time.

The chance of a fight breaking out was very high. She saw her sister's fists clenched and ready to rocket up onto the roof.

Then a shadow leaped over the roof and bounced off the opposing wall before landing with a crouch in front of them.

Amy's mouth fell open, her eyes widened in shock.

"Taylor?!" She exclaimed.

Dean and Victoria both looked back at Amy. "You know her?" They asked in unison.

"Hello, Amy." Taylor stood straight and nodded to her neutrally.

"Why are you—are you actually stalking me?" Amy asked with outrage as she stepped forward.

Victoria's aura flared as she turned back to Taylor aggressively.

"You've been stalking my sister?" She demanded.

Taylor's eyes shifted to Victoria immediately.

"Cease your attempts at attacking my mind, mortal. Were you not the sister of my saviour, I would consider slaying you for this insult," Taylor ordered.

"Mortal? The hell do you think you are?" Victora's aura rose even higher while she cracked her fist against her palm in a threatening move.

"Vicky, your aura!" Dean whispered loudly. "You can't use it on a civilian like this! She has no mask on!"

"She's clearly a cape if she can resist it!" Victoria retorted, floating up into the air.

"Don't confuse me with your lot. You may have powers beyond regular humans, but you are still mortals with no foundation in the Dao. This is your last warning. Cease at once, or I will stop you myself," Taylor ordered again, expression unchanging.

"Damn, you're just asking for a beat down! Here's a warning of my own! Stay the hell away from my sister or I'll make you regret it! Now go away before I make you!"

Taylor frowned. "So be it. I warned you."

O O O


	6. Spirit 1-6

**Spirit 1.6**

In the moment that Amy hesitated between panic and curiosity and figuring out who she needed to stop, both Taylor and Victoria had already moved before Amy could try to stop either of them.

"Wait!" "Stop!" Amy and Dean yelled simultaneously.

Taylor dashed forward and closed the gap in an instant, her forefinger and middle finger thrusting forward as if they were a deadly weapon. Victoria flew past Amy and Dean and just barely dodged the high speed finger thrust by chafing right, and tried to shove Taylor's shoulder as she flew by.

Taylor intercepted the shove with her left hand and grabbed onto Victoria's wrist, twisting with a pivot on the ground, and bringing her right hand back again, ready to poke Victoria. The blonde haired hero out of costume realized that Taylor was also a physical fighter, most likely a brute with the amount of strength being exerted on her at the wrist, and decided to match her head on, reversing momentum to punch toward Taylor, ignoring the incoming finger poke.

Taylor reacted immediately and changed the direction of the finger poke to the arm that she was grabbing onto with her other hand, while kicking off the ground, avoiding the punch that was aimed toward her gut.

Her qi-empowered finger poke hit Victoria's arm, the qi extending outwards and hitting the forcefield to create a momentary flicker but otherwise not damaging the hero known to be invincible. However, even that single instant was enough for Taylor's other hand to make direct skin contact with Victoria's held wrist, allowing Taylor to perceive Glory Girl's underwhelming strength and fragility without her forcefield to assist. Meanwhile, Victoria's punch curved as her whole body's flight direction shifted, homing in on Taylor's belly.

The punch still didn't make contact, however, as Taylor leveraged her grip on Victoria's wrist to carry her upwards momentum into a spin, before letting go of her grip and getting launched towards the opposite alley wall.

Taylor hit the wall feet first and condensed into a crouch with a turn to face Victoria, who had already chased after her fists raised.

The cultivator narrowed her eyes after estimating Victoria's movement speed and reaction times, then moved faster than before and deftly slipped around Victoria's trajectory. The surprised flier was unable to stop herself from smashing into the wall.

Taylor fell back down to the ground and watched calmly as her opponent tore her arm out of the broken wall.

"You fly fast but you are unskilled. Your limbs cannot keep up with the speed of your flight. If your enemies can resist your aura of fear, they will not simply allow you to hit them freely."

"Shut up, you arrogant bitch! You haven't gotten a good hit on me either!" Victoria flexed her arm as pieces of the wall fell to the ground.

"Don't be foolish. A single strike from me disabled your forcefield earlier. Beneath your forcefield you are no different from a regular mortal. If I held back any less, your life would be in peril," Taylor said dismissively.

"Why you…!" Victoria flew down again, charging at Taylor.

" _Stop!_ " Amy rushed forward, blocking Victoria's way with her arms spread out.

Victoria came to a hard stop in front of her sister and had a betrayed look on her face when she saw the glare Amy gave her.

Dean already had his phone out, ready to call PRT just in case. "Please, Vicky, she clearly doesn't want to fight anymore," he said, grabbing onto Victoria's left arm with a pleading look.

The floating girl looked between her boyfriend and her sister. "But she start—"

"But nothing, Vicky! You're a hero! You can't just fight because you're angry. Look at the wall you just broke. Who's going to pay for that? You _always_ do this, Vicky, then people get hurt and things get destroyed when they don't need to be. When are you going to learn to hold back and look for the peaceful solution? I'm tired of having to clean up for you all the time," Amy said heatedly.

Victoria's eyes teared up. "I—I'm just trying to help, why are you guys ganging up on me? She's the one that was stalking us!"

Amy dropped her arms and sighed. "I _know_ you're trying to help. But you're _not actually helping._ Can you just turn off your aura, please? Even I'm feeling it now."

"We're not ganging up on you, Vicky. No matter what Taylor said or did, right now you're the one using a parahuman power on her when she hasn't technically done anything illegal. It's not a crime to follow somebody around for a short while. Paparazzi and die-hard cape fans do it all the time, and you wouldn't attack them, would you?" Dean added.

Victoria bit her lip. "Fine." She dialed down her aura as far as she could.

Amy smiled slightly at Vicky, who gave a half-hearted smile back. "Thank you, Vicky." Then she turned to Taylor, who nodded at her.

But Amy frowned in response. "And you! Can you not provoke and insult people with every sentence you say?"

Taylor looked back with a confused expression. "I did nothing of the sort. What are you referring to?"

"You—are you serious? Taylor, You can't just call someone a mortal without it coming off as an insult. And crazy, too. Not to mention the part where you threatened to 'slay' her, and when you called Vicky unskilled, and pretty much everything you said!" Amy said with exasperation.

Taylor blinked. She was silent for a few moments, then furrowed her eyebrows as if in concentration.

"My apolog—sorry, I need some time to advance in the social Dao—get used to talking, I mean. I haven't had many interactions with morta—normal people before." Amy watched Taylor struggle with her words with no small amount of incredulity, and a little bit of pity. By the sounds of it, the girl was even more introverted than Amy herself, off in her own world with no common sense to handle the outside.

She thought of what she had felt back at the hospital when Taylor somehow shared her senses with her, and wondered if it was simply Taylor's power that made her this way. There were cases of some parahumans triggering with powers that drastically altered their mentality, especially the very young triggers. Then there were the capes that were simply commonly thought of as crazy. Like Glaistig Uaine, thinking of herself as a Faerie. Was Taylor similar, Amy wondered to herself.

She sighed. "Nevermind that. Taylor, why exactly were you following me?"

"You are stressed, and your qi is already showing signs of becoming unbalanced again mere hours after I restored the balance. I followed you to understand why," said Taylor.

"You can't just do that, Taylor. I appreciate your concern, and your… _healing_..." Amy said, scrunching her eyebrows as if unsure of what to say. She knew Taylor was weird from the first meeting, but she also knew that Taylor meant well, having felt what Taylor felt when she did the…whatever it was she did back then. "But stalking is _creepy_. It makes people uncomfortable. It makes _me_ uncomfortable, knowing that there's somebody out there following me secretly."

Taylor nodded. "Sorry, I didn't mean for you to know. With what little power I have recovered, my stealth capabilities remain subpar."

"No, that's not what I meant! You shouldn't be stalking me at all! "

"As you wish, I won't follow you around anymore," said Taylor.

"Good," said Amy with a light smile. Taylor's face remained stoic. The smile slid off Amy's face. "Okay…and you should ask permission before healing someone. I don't mind, but it's a big deal, legally, if you try to heal anybody else when they don't want you to."

Taylor scoffed. "That will not be a problem. I have no interest in healing others."


	7. Spirit 1-7

**Spirit 1.7**

"What? But…" Amy started, but couldn't find the words to continue. It was incomprehensible to her, that somebody who seemed so nice would be so callous about using her power to heal people in need.

"She's a villain! I knew it!" Victoria said loudly and flew back into the air aggressively.

"Hold it, Vicky! I'm sure there must be a good explanation, right Taylor?" Dean asked with a serious expression.

Taylor opened her mouth to speak, then closed it again, appearing hesitant for the first time to the three teens in front of her.

Her eyes were fixed on Amy still, but Amy didn't think that Taylor was seeing her anymore. The expressionless façade she had been maintaining was gone, replaced by eyes that were lost in painful memories.

The silence stretched on for what seemed like an eternity as even Victoria felt the shift in mood.

"…I'm sorry. You wouldn't understand it," Taylor said at last, turning to walk away.

Amy stepped to follow almost subconsciously, thoughts awhirl with regret and trepidation. She had been wrong about Taylor being callous. It wasn't that she didn't care or thought herself above healing, that much was obvious from her subdued reaction.

' _Maybe I do,_ ' she wanted to say out loud, but found herself unable to voice it. If Taylor didn't want to speak of it, what right did she have to press her? They weren't even friends. But she really wanted to know. Did Taylor have the kind of thoughts she did about her patients? Amy wasn't as into healing as she tried to act like. In the beginning, she had been motivated to do it when she first triggered, but over the years it had become a chore, and she felt guilty for thinking about it that way. It was hard to keep caring about any individual patient after healing a few thousand people. The fact that she'd never heard of another healer like Taylor in Brockton Bay didn't mean that there couldn't have been somebody going around to heal people in secret outside of hospitals, maybe even outside of Brockton Bay. If Taylor routinely did things like breaking into people's houses secretly…and she did say that she was recovering her powers, which implied that her powers were stronger before.

"Try us! If you have a good reason, why wouldn't we understand?" Her sister voiced aloud what she could not, and in a much more hostile tone than she would have. She regretted not speaking up first.

Taylor turned back around just a little, glanced at Victoria, then to Amy again.

"You don't have to tell us if you don't want to, Taylor," said Amy. She ignored the protest from Victoria and continued, "Being a healer isn't easy and it's not for everyone. I get it."

There was a flash of something close to surprise on Taylor's face, before it melted back into that troubled faraway look. She nodded her appreciation before leaving. Victoria saw the looks Dean and Amy gave her, and she relented to let Taylor go.

After they were alone, Victoria spoke up. "What was that about?" She looked to Dean for his power analysis.

"I think she does want to heal people, but something happened to make her unwilling. I was reading guilt, longing, and sadness from her," said Dean. "But it's a little confusing. She was disdainful at first when she said she wasn't going to heal anyone else, I'm not sure why it changed abruptly like that. Her emotions were pretty hard to read too the whole time until the end. It was like she barely had any emotions, they were so faint, but then during the fight there was a really strong emotion I've never felt in anyone else before. It was… _sharp_ , and I had the strangest idea that it would become physical and cut me if I focused on it too closely."

"Could she be a Master victim? She can't heal because somebody else is stopping her? And that might be why she can resist my aura! If her emotions are partially being controlled by someone else, or she built up an immunity to emotion effects over time," said Victoria.

Dean had a thoughtful look on his face. "That…could be possible, actually. It would explain that weird sharp emotion. Power interactions and all that."

"Isn't that jumping to conclusions? She might just have a Trump power to resist other powers," said Amy. She knew firsthand that Taylor experienced the world in a different way from everyone else. Taylor's power when she shared it with Amy gave her a feel for living things and self-awareness that was expressed in some kind of metaphysical flowing energy. And moreover, "My power works really slowly on her body too."

"But you saw how her face changed. It wasn't just a power giving Dean the wrong readings. She was clearly an arrogant bitch right up until the end," said Victoria.

"Taylor's not an arrogant bitch, she's just not used to dealing with people! And her power isn't as strong as it should be. That's probably why she doesn't want to heal anyone else, when she's still recovering," said Amy.

"I've never heard of powers having to recover. What makes you think her power isn't as strong as it should be?" asked Victoria.

"She told me her powers were still recovering. She said it just now too, about her stealth not being as good."

"Wait a minute, where and when did you even meet her?"

"Brockton General. Remember how I stayed really late on Monday? She was the one I spent the night for."

Victoria looked at her oddly. "And then she…healed you? When was that? When did you get injured?"

"Well I wasn't injured, exactly. It was more like reducing stress. She came to my room last night. When I woke up this morning there was a note from her explaining about the healing she did when I was asleep. I never actually saw her using her power for healing so I don't know how it works, but I did feel pretty amazing after. I haven't gotten much sleep the past few days but I didn't feel tired at all today."

"O-oh. I guess I misunderstood what kind of stalker she was earlier. She was just looking out for you," said Victoria, her face was red with embarrassment. "Sorry. I shouldn't have attacked her."

Victoria was cute when she looked abashed, Amy thought. It was much better than the angry girl that thought with her fists.

"It's okay. Just don't jump the gun next time something like this happens," Amy said in a consoling tone, relieved that her sister could acknowledge the mistake.

Dean watched the exchange quietly with an unreadable look.

O O O

Taylor's emotions were still in turmoil long after she left the alley. To the question of why she wouldn't heal people, she had almost responded with the cultivator's generally agreed principles of conduct related to mortals.

Cultivators that followed the "proper path", in contrast to the "demonic path", did not interfere with mortal affairs unless they were expressly part of the ruling government in a sovereign state, or otherwise lawfully governed by the cultivator(s) in question.

There wouldn't have been any real repercussions for violating the rule unless one did it on a large scale and was considered to be subverting another cultivator's serfs, but to Taylor in the other world, healing other people just wasn't something she had really thought about early in her career, given her own troubles, and later on her sect didn't participate much in state governance at all. There was never any benefit that would have attracted Taylor to doing something like that.

But just as she was about to say it, memories of a time when she had been a cape enthusiast came unbidden, when she had looked up to heroes like Alexandria and Armsmaster, even Panacea.

Panacea wasn't as flashy as the big name heroes, but what she did, Taylor respected. What drove somebody to be so selfless, that part of her understood very well. She had dreamed of being a hero herself when she was younger. Even right up to the locker incident, if she suddenly got powers, she knew she would have gone out to become a hero.

She wondered idly if she might have tried to take revenge on the trio had she become a cape. She liked to think that she was better than that, but she didn't feel confident that she would have resisted the temptation.

At the very least, if she had become a cape with healing powers like Panacea, there was no doubt in her mind that she would have used it for the good people of Brockton Bay, much like Amy.

But Taylor wasn't the same girl anymore, and when she had gotten her powers it had come with a whole slew of other problems, feelings, and memories.

She wasn't a cape. Maybe by the definition of parahuman on Earth Bet, she would be considered one, but she knew for herself that something different had happened to her.

She made her way back to the house quietly. Her dad wasn't home yet, and she changed herself out of her robes and into her normal casual clothes.

The girl that looked back at her from the mirror on her closet was very different from what she was used to. It wasn't the gaunt, defeated figure of a long-term bullying victim that couldn't make any friends, but nor was it the cold, oppressive image of a prodigious fighter that isolated herself in the single-minded pursuit of survival.

Her facial features were a little different from before, having been cultivated through star essence. In the cultivator world, she had started very early so her body had grown in a much more efficient, healthy way. That same effect would start to change her slowly over time in this world too.

"Do you want to be a hero?" She asked aloud.

There was no response. Not that she expected one, but asking aloud made her feel better. More grounded, as if there really were two opinions she had to consider.

Her souls had merged into one being, and the outcome was a mix of both that acted like neither would have before. The confrontation with Amy and her friends showed that she had to take more time to reflect on how she had changed.

If it had been her old cultivator self, there would not have been a confrontation at all. It was entirely unnecessary to reveal herself, when she could have quietly escaped instead. But the modern girl in her didn't want to make trouble with the two heroes of New Wave, in case she was caught. Of course, if it had been the old Bet Taylor, she wouldn't have been out there stalking Amy in the first place.

Her reflection grimaced at her.

A lot of things she had done over the past few days, now that she thought about them, were very strange, and she didn't like the results.

If allowed to fester, this would lead to inner demons interfering with her progress, perhaps even a disastrous failure at a critical juncture.

It would be impossible to breakthrough to Ethereal Heart at the end of the Meditation stage if she could not rediscover her true self, which would be very different from the first time she did it.

It would be some time before she finished the rest of Meditation to reach that point, but the first major bottleneck in her cultivation had reared its ugly head.

O O O


	8. Alternative Spirit 1-7 Omake

**A/N: This is NON-CANON. I wrote this before the 1.7 you saw last chapter and later decided it wasn't right, but it is rather funny so here it is as an Omake.**

 **Spirit 1.7 Alternative - Taylor Thinks Amy is Hiding Her Cultivation  
**

"What? But…" Amy started, but couldn't find the words to continue. It was incomprehensible to her, that somebody who seemed so nice would be so callous about using her power to heal people in need.

"She's a villain! I knew it!" Victoria said loudly and flew back into the air aggressively.

"Hold it, Vicky! I'm sure there must be a good explanation, right Taylor?" Dean asked with a serious expression.

"What is there to explain? I healed Amy because she saved my life. I have no reason to heal mortals."

"You're doing it again…stop saying mortals!" Amy reminded her with a groan.

Taylor had a disturbed look. She hadn't forgotten. The problem was…

"I'm sorry, but I can't explain this any other way. It's _because_ they are mortal that I have no reason to heal them. Mortals die—that is the Dao of Heaven, and it would be improper to interfere in mortal affairs without proper cause," she said.

Amy face-palmed. "I can't even…?" She muttered quietly to herself.

"You are also a mor…" Then Taylor's expression changed as if coming to a grand epiphany as she looked at Amy. "..tal, but debts must…be…repaid…"

Taylor finished her statement slowly but she continued staring at Amy with trepidation. Her thoughts raced at a blistering speed as understanding dawned in her eyes.

Taylor had finally put the pieces together. She only now realized that the person in front of her had been trying to give her hints all this time.

The way that the famous healer healed Taylor—who was at the time a mere mortal—without wanting anything in return, the way she ignored the offer to teach her cultivation, the way her qi fluctuations returned to being apparently imbalanced and stressed so quickly, the way she was teaching her the social Dao of mortals and advising her on healing—it all came together to reveal an earth-shattering truth.

At the hospital, Taylor had the fanciful thought that Panacea was a born Saint who comprehended the Dao by her own natural virtue. She couldn't feel the girl's cultivation realm at all. Aside from having a unusually high qi levels for mortals which Taylor attributed to her being a cape, she appeared entirely ordinary to Taylor's spirit sense.

That could have been explained away by her spirit sense being weak after losing all her cultivation, but when Taylor touched Amy directly and concentrated her spirit sense into the girl and still noticed nothing out of the ordinary, even with all her experience in using spirit sense in her previous life, she thought no more of it.

But now, looking back, Taylor saw that the truth must have been even stranger.

She had heard of it before in hushed whispers and read it in the most forbidden texts.

It was an idea so profound as to be utterly unthinkable to serious cultivators.

Taylor herself thought it was just a myth, but now it seemed that the myth had appeared right in front her.

It was the realm of having perfected "returning to the natural state"! The hidden realm after attaining Saint in which a cultivator would willingly live as a mortal again to comprehend the simplicity of the original nature!

Panacea's cultivation realm was so high that Taylor couldn't even begin to comprehend it, and by some stroke of luck, the kindly great sage must have misunderstood Taylor's loss of all her cultivation as a junior unsuccessfully attempting the same trial too early.

It was little wonder then, that she appeared so frustrated with Taylor's behaviour.

Therefore the great sage was showing Taylor the proper way to live as a mortal and complete this severe trial.

That was the conclusion Taylor came to.

Understanding this, she naturally couldn't foolishly reject the great sage's teachings. Even if she desired to quickly raise her cultivation level, the benefit of completing this trial early couldn't be understated.

The Eternal Star Enlightened Path manual that she had memorized, although it explained the method of breaking through beyond Saint to Divine Shadow and Grand Liberation, those parts of the manual were exceedingly cryptic, sparse, and seemed to imply that it mostly relied on one's own comprehension and unique path.

A master willing to teach her such as this would be a tremendous boon, one that she likely couldn't have found in the whole cultivation world!

There was a chance that she was wrong, of course. But she had nothing to lose from it. After all, she had no other leads on the method to overcome her fate yet.

Then suddenly she bowed her head and formed a fist covered by an open palm towards Amy.

"My deepest apologies. This lowly one had eyes but was too blind to see Mt. Tai. This junior finally understands what venerable senior wanted to convey, and will follow all of senior's instructions."

Amy was taken aback at the sudden about-face, and looked to Dean and Victoria for their reactions.

Dean had a confused expression and gave a helpless looking shrug.

Victoria was rolling her fingers beside her temple in the gesture for "this person is mental".

"Uh…okay. Wait, why are you calling me senior?" Amy asked.

Taylor straightened up again and looked up. "Because you are my senior and you are instructing me, so I should acknowledge your position and pay the proper respect."

"That's…I mean, I _am_ older than you but only by a year or so. You don't have to do that. Just call me Amy," said Amy.

"Yes, Amy."

Without having reached Saint herself, Taylor understood that she had no hope of successfully completing the "returning to the natural state" without guidance. After her terrible showing earlier, Taylor knew she had to quickly adjust and show this enlightened master that she was a teachable student.

It was fortunate, she thought, that she had combined with her mortal self in this world. It would be best to draw more on that part of her soul.

"So, does this mean you're willing to use your powers to heal people now?" Amy asked.

"I don't understand why yet, but if you think I should, then I will."

"Yes, you should. And you should probably get licensed for it," said Amy.

"I don't know the procedure for getting licensed. Will you assist?"

"Sure. I'd be happy to help." Amy gave her a smile. Taylor was very strange, but at least she seemed to be capable of accepting advice, she thought in relief.

O O O

"First, what can you actually heal? Do you know?" Amy asked from the seat across from Taylor. The four of them had gone to a private room in a restaurant by the Boardwalk with a window view of the coast, at Dean's expense.

"At my current power, I can heal most common diseases, infections, poisons, chronic illnesses, and mental afflictions with ease," said Taylor.

"Mental afflictions? Like depression?" Amy asked. Victoria started paying closer attention as well.

"Yes. I would consider your stress a mental affliction too," said Taylor.

"Then, you could heal dad?!" Victoria said with an excited look. By all appearances, she had forgotten ll about the earlier fight and had become friendly on the way to the restaurant.

"I have not diagnosed your dad to be certain, but it is likely that I could."

"That's perfect. I can't work with brains, so you can heal all those patients that I can't," said Amy. "Can you heal stuff like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's too?"

Taylor drew upon the knowledge of her Earth Bet soul. These diseases were not known to her by such names in the cultivation world, though there had been cases of people with similar symptoms. Cultivators were never affected by such things except for curses, and among mortals weakness of the mind was simply associated with old age.

"I've never tried with those, but it should be possible. Unless there's a curse on the victim, restoring the natural qi balance should remove any afflictions of the mind," said Taylor.

"By curses are you talking about Master effects?" Dean asked.

Taylor frowned. "Not exactly. A curse is a continuous influence caused by an active source of foreign qi. That is much more difficult to remove than a simple disease. If a victim has been brainwashed…thinking differently is not a mental affliction, and I would not be able to cure it at all."

"You said much more difficult. So that means, you might be able to remove at some types of Master effects?" Dean asked.

"I'm not sure. Again, I have never tried. I suppose it all depends on how the Master effect works. I just don't know enough about them," said Taylor. Heartbreaker was a famous one she knew of, but what she little she remembered about him seemed to indicate that his effects were permanent—the brainwashing kind. Even Victoria's aura was like that, as far as she could tell. There was no continuous influence left when the aura was gone, except one's own emotional memory.

"Hmm. How exactly does your healing work?" Amy asked.

"Are you familiar with acupuncture?"

"You mean the treatment with putting needles into pressure points to stimulate the nervous system? I've heard of it. It's pretty common in Asia, right? There are quite a few acupuncture clinics in Brockton Bay too."

"At my current level, most of my healing art involves acupuncture. Treatments for mental afflictions may also use music. The basis of my healing is to channel qi through the needles and guide the patient's own qi. The acupuncture that mortals use is a crippled form of what I do, because they cannot manipulate qi as I can. Depending on the severity of the issue, the effects could take anywhere from minutes to weeks to be seen." said Taylor. "

Amy felt a cold chill run through her. If most of Taylor's healing involved acupuncture, did that mean she stuck needles into her when she was asleep?!

At that moment, the waitress came in with a tray of sandwiches, fries, and drinks.

The conversation lulled as the four teens began to eat.

"Your power is pretty unusual. Most healing capes you hear about deal with physical injuries, and take effect pretty quick, like Othala granting regeneration. But then again, healers are pretty rare to begin with. A lot of them are actually Tinkers. Other than Amy here, I haven't heard of any other capes that can treat chronic illnesses, and I don't know any that deal with mental illnesses. Plus, the way you have to use acupuncture and music? What power category would that even be?" said Dean as he took a fry.

"You seem very knowledgeable about capes," Taylor said.

"When your girlfriend is part of a cape family, you tend to want to learn more about the cape scene," he said with a casual smile.

"I just want to know why you keep calling everyone else mortals. Are you supposed to be immortal or something?" Victoria asked.

Taylor crunched a fry for herself. She had once been an Immortal—an ageless cultivator who has reached the realm of Star Condensation—by the terminology of the cultivation world, but she had never been beyond death's reach. If she were, she would not have cultivated so obsessively in the other world. If she had simply taken things slowly and never revealed her talent, her Absolute Yin might never have been exposed. Unfortunately, it was the same Absolute Yin that drove her to cultivate. Her time was so very limited. Getting a new body made little difference.

 _I am sorry. What ails you is not a disease, De Luo-er. It is fate. There is no cure. But perhaps…_

"No. The term for my kind is cultivator, one who seeks the Great Dao," said Taylor.

Victoria looked displeased with her answer.

O O O

 **A/N:** **Just reiterating that this is not canon if you missed my A/N at the top.**


	9. Foundation 2-1

**Foundation 2.1**

After Victoria flew Amy home, she met up with Dean again at the Boardwalk.

They were originally going to get Amy to come with them to grab a snack and make her spill the beans on who caught her eye, but after the meeting with Taylor, Amy said she wasn't in the mood to go anywhere.

Victoria and Dean had a silent message passed between them before they let her off.

Now at the Boardwalk, they went to their favourite fish and chips joint, and got a room with a nice view of the coast as usual before ordering their drinks and snacks.

"You heard her say it too right? Ames said she spent the night with Taylor! I thought she was just working too late on Monday…"

Victoria spoke with wide eyes.

"Yeah…" Dean said noncommittally. He was still trying to process what he read off of Amy that day.

There was no doubt that something had changed with her. At first, he thought it was plausible what Victoria had speculated to him—Amy found a guy she liked.

He didn't think it was _likely_ that Amy had found someone else, but plausible, given that her state of mind was much more positive throughout the day, and the jealousy and hurt and guilt had dimmed, a _lot_.

He knew what was going on with Amy's jealousy towards him, having figured it out almost half a year ago and he tried to help, at times. He had raised the subject gently, and she'd always reacted badly. It was tough. It was a secret, and he had no right to push it, but it was serious and Amy had been in a bad place for a long time. It was killing her inside slowly, and he didn't have many options for helping. Dean didn't think anyone could be a great help, but it was especially bad for him because of his awkward position as the target of her jealousy. Any attempts to console her could just end up seeming like he was trying to make her give up competing with him.

But he knew, and he couldn't just do nothing because he had the power to read emotions, and Victoria wouldn't ever forgive him if she knew that he didn't even try.

So he tried to reach out more than a couple of times, and it had never gotten anywhere. And they were both busy, with crises in the city happening all too often, and she's off healing somewhere while he patrolled the streets. They'd only see each other in passing, and there was never enough trust built up to really have a heart to heart.

There were days like today, when he and Victoria tried to get Amy to come out with them, but she usually declined, and knowing just why she would decline, Dean never tried to push it like Victoria sometimes did.

He had just been thinking of ways to make a stronger effort, when she came to school today with only a fragment of the depression she usually had.

The waitress came in with their order, a shared fish and chips dish for both of them, ice tea for Victoria, and hot chocolate for himself.

"And that 'healing'," Victoria said making air quotes. "I can't be the only one who thought the way she described it was kinda weird. Relieving stress, feeling amazing? And visiting her in the middle of the night, but only healing her after she fell asleep?"

"Vicky…didn't she just tell you not to jump the gun?"

"But come on, there must be something going on between them. Don't you think so too, Dean?"

"Maybe, but it's probably not the rabbit hole you're imagining."

Again, he thought it was _plausible_ that Amy liked Taylor, but that wasn't what he read during the meeting between them earlier, and Amy still had feelings of attraction to Victoria throughout the day.

Victoria puffed and frowned. "Then what do you think it is? You're always like this when we talk about my sis, disagreeing with me without saying anything. You figure everyone else out just fine, so why do you act like you're so unsure about her?"

Victoria could be perceptive about these things, Dean knew. It was only a matter of time before she called him out on this, and today turned out to be the day.

"Amy's emotions are really complex," he said. He didn't want to tell her the truth. It would be too much, too soon.

"Because everyone else is simple minded? And I'm a dumb bimbo in comparison?" Victoria looked down and dipped a fry into her ketchup. Strands of hair fell across her face.

"Woah, I didn't say that. All emotions are complex, it's not easy to figure out. And I don't think that, Vicky. I wouldn't be dating you if I did. Besides, you know I can't read your emotions well either."

"Don't lie to me. You're always agreeing with her and telling me off. I'm your girlfriend, shouldn't you take _my_ side most of the time? I bet you wish I could be more like sis, don't you? Smart, focused, thinks before she acts," said Victoria.

"What? No, you're plenty smart—"

"You're just saying that. I can barely keep up with parahumans 101 while Ames is already done the equivalent of a PhD, and Brockton U's planning to award her with an honorary degree during the grad ceremonies this summer."

"Parahumans 101 is a college course, Vicky, that's already way ahead of everyone else in high school. And Amy has her power to help her understand biology on a molecular level. You can't compare that," said Dean. "Where did this even come from? I never knew that bothered you."

"And I'm happy for her, you know? But I can't be like her. I don't even know what I want to study in college and she's already got her career in order. While me and my girlfriends talk about boys and clothes, she's reading research journals and writing clinical notes about her patient cases. She's just there with us because that's what kids are supposed to do, even though she doesn't really need to be in school anymore. And I'll never be that smart or focused. That's the truth and I know it."

"Vicky, there's nothing wrong with being a _normal_ high school student. I just don't understand why all of a sudden…"

Victoria threw away her fry and wiped her eyes. Dean had trouble continuing his words. It was so much easier when he could just read someone's emotions. He couldn't do that with Victoria, because capes who had emotion affecting powers were usually resistant to other emotion powers.

"Do you know why I wanted so badly to be a hero my entire life?" She asked in a quiet voice.

"You told me before…your whole family was made up of heroes. Everything revolved around being a hero and you weren't," he said carefully.

"Yes. Being heroes was all they ever talked about, all they seemed to care about. And why not? They were a famous, public team. They were heroes 24/7 because New Wave doesn't have secret identities. I wasn't part of that, and it was like they barely even saw me. I wasn't relevant. And the other kids were always asking me and Ames about them, like it wasn't enough that I thought about it every ten minutes, they had to remind me in every conversation too."

Dean waited patiently for her to continue. It wasn't clear to him why Victoria changed the topic to something else equally heavy, but it seemed like she was going to share some things she never had before.

"But I didn't have powers so all I could do was try my best in school. Except I'm not that smart, or into studying. Ames always had the better grades even before she got her powers."

There was the link, Dean realized.

"I'm not jealous of her though. Never was. Mom and dad didn't give her any more attention than they gave me, and she was the only one that made me feel like I even mattered, because I'm her sister and she loves me. But, there was never anything to celebrate, anything I could be proud of, anything that made mom and dad excited about what I had done. So I tried to do sports—basketball, you knew that. That kind of worked for a while. Mom and dad would come to watch my games, and I was pretty good. I could finally stand out. But they didn't always come, usually because of hero work, and every missed visit was horrible because the little things mattered so much when I had nothing else. Then there was that one game."

"The one where you were fouled badly?" He knew about that game. He was there, in fact, in the crowd, but they weren't dating yet then.

"Yeah. You know that girl that kicked my ass. She was so much better than me, and I saw the looks of disappointment on mom and dad's faces every time she beat me. When she wasn't beating me, they were just bored. They didn't really want to be there. They just had to, because they were my parents, and that's what parents do. And then that girl elbowed me hard, and it hurt so much, and I realized I didn't even want to be there either. I just wanted to be a freaking hero."

"And then you triggered." He knew this story, from the other side too. It was the whole reason he got interested in Victoria. He already had his powers by then and he knew exactly what she was going through on the court, how similar it was to his own desperate need that led him to seek out a power of his own. He just never knew how deep and connected it was to everything else, and that was the only time he felt Victoria's emotions because she triggered just then and he couldn't read her anymore after.

"I was so happy. I got what I wanted, and I was out there patrolling all the time. I was Glory Girl, and I could fight bad guys with my family. Except, I wasn't good at being a hero either. I was strong, I could fly—I loved that—I had a good power, but I kept making mistakes. I was so bad that I almost died getting shot by some gangers in a mall and Ames had to trigger to save me!"

"Everyone makes mistakes, Vicky. We learn from them, that's how we grow."

"But it's not good enough. _I'm_ not good enough. I'm always doing something wrong! Being a hero is all I've got going for me and even then nobody would like me if I didn't have my aura on! Collateral Damage Barbie, that's what they call me on the forums!"

"People say stupid things on the forum all the time, you shouldn't let them get to you. Besides, _I_ like you Vicky, and your aura doesn't work on me. And you have Amy too."

"You like me because _your_ powers don't work on me, but if you can't read Ames either, then—then what's the point of dating me when she's so much better than me and you obviously like each other!"

"What?! I don't—"

"I'm not that smart but I'm not stupid either! You guys sneak looks at each other when you think nobody else is watching. And I know Ames can't stand going out with us, not when it's so freaking painful to see us being together when it could be her instead of me! And you've known all along, that's why it's freaking awkward when we're all together and you don't help me try to include her because you guys try to hide how much you would rather be together instead! When we're at school and she sees us together she goes off to sulk alone and you sneak away to console her! You're just staying with me 'cause you try to act like a gentleman and we were together first, while Ames is sacrificing her own feelings to help me become the kind of girl you would like!"

"Vicky, please, weren't you just thinking about how Amy is into Taylor? How could there be anything between her and _me_?"

"And you denied that. Yeah, because you know better and her liking Taylor was just wishful thinking on my part but you don't want to tell me what you know and Ames isn't even into girls—because, because you know she likes _you_! Taylor was just her patient at the hospital, and a girl cape that can heal to boot, it's not strange for Ames to be happy about maybe getting a new friend who can do the same things she does!"

"That's not—"

"I want Ames to be happy. I really do. She's my sister and I love her. And it sucks for her at home, even more than for me, because she's adopted. But it's j-just, it's so h-hard to g-give up the only thing I can be h-happy about, to be p-proud of!" Victoria said between sniffing and wiping her eyes repeatedly as her tears were falling on her food.

"I'm not s-smart like her, I suck at b-being a hero, a-and everyone who's n-not in my family only l-likes me because of my aura, ex-except you, and, and I'm n-not the one you r-really want, and t-that hurts even more, kn-knowing that I'm just in the w-way and A-Ames deserves it more and I'm so, so _tired_ of t-trying to make th-things work, we've b-been on so m-many double d-dates and she's never—never going to j-just like a-another guy, 'cause you're handsome and considerate and you l-live up to your cape n-name so well!"

It wasn't true, Dean desperately wanted to say, and explain how it wasn't, but he didn't know how. She was so close and so far from the truth, and the truth was just as bad or even worse in a way, because it wasn't a matter of one sister sacrificing for the other, there was simply no way for Amy to ever get what she wanted and no way for her to get any happy ending.

It wasn't even his secret to reveal, and sometimes he had even wondered if he had read Amy right, because he thought the same thing as Victoria early on, until it didn't seem to perfectly fit, and now he was doubting himself again.

It hurt to see Victoria like this—she didn't even touch the ice tea she liked so much today—it hurt even more than the other times they'd broken up because this was so visceral and frank and he couldn't shrug it off as Victoria just being in one of those moods—

Dean wanted to kick himself. How hadn't he seen it sooner? The other few times, it'd also been Victoria who got into a depressed and angry mood, and they matched the times when Amy's emotions were rock bottom. He had assumed that Victoria's bad mood made things worse for Amy, but what if it was the other way around, with Amy being in a bad place first and Victoria suspecting that it was connected to her, so she found an excuse to break up with him to make Amy happier?

He had to— _needed_ to fix this.

Somehow. Or they would all be miserable for the rest of their lives.

"Vicky, you're the one I like. It's always been you, and nobody else. You connect with me in a way that nobody else could, and it's not just the way that I can't read your emotions. I know what it's like to want something to be proud of that was uniquely my own, something to make me stand out and mean something other than the rich heir to the Stansfield Group, which was all my family seemed to care about and what everyone knew me as. There's really nothing between me and your sister. The two of us wanted our powers, wanted it badly, but she doesn't, you know?"

Victoria stood up and clenched her fists.

"No—just stop! I can't—don't spin it like that to comfort me! She doesn't want her powers 'cause she can't be the kind of hero we can, she's got to clean up after my messes, and everyone else, and deal with thousands of people that only see her for her ability to heal them! I should know—she loves flying even more than I do—when I take her flying it's practically the only time she's really happy! If she had powers like mine she'd be all over it and do a better job than me, and you can't tell me she didn't want have something unique and special that made her feel like she mattered!"

"That's…that's…" Dean swallowed hard. If there was a way out of this, he couldn't see it. In some ways, Victoria was right. Amy wasn't all that different from them, he was starting to realize, but he had never been romantically interested in her the way he was in Victoria. His logic didn't hold, and he didn't understand it himself.

"Before I got powers, mom and dad didn't seem to care about anything I did, but they tried sometimes, at least. I-I don't know if mom even _wanted_ Ames. Then she got powers and things got worse instead of better, like mom became _afraid_ of her power, afraid of _her_ , like she wasn't her daughter anymore just a dangerous power, even though she was doing so much good with them, and then she wouldn't try to fix dad, and—and I just—I can't—I need to be alone! Don't follow me!"

And she was gone, slamming out of the door before he could even try to stop her.

He sat there silently by himself, processing what Victoria had told him at the very end.

He knew Amy was in a bad place, but he was now starting to understand that was still missing half the picture. Were any of his thoughts and suspicions about her feelings right, given what he now knew?

Maybe Victoria was right. Maybe Amy did like him—and hated him for making her feel that way, hated herself for having those feelings because she was jealous of Victoria for getting the love from their parents and from him that she was missing so completely in her life. And maybe it was a bit of both, maybe she was jealous of him for taking her sister's attention away from her, because her sister was the only person that loved her, and she didn't have to be _in love_ with Victoria to feel upset about slowly losing the only person who cared about her to someone else, and she was left out, all alone.

Had he been the one to jump to conclusions before he had the whole picture?

It was all so confusing.

The ice tea sat there silently with him, until he decided to finish it for Victoria.

He didn't understand why Victoria liked to drink ice tea even in the middle of winter.

It was bitter, and cold.

He shivered.


	10. Foundation 2-2

**Foundation 2.2**

Taylor heard the footsteps long before she saw them.

Two of the girls that made her life hell, climbing the stairs to the fourth floor of an abandoned, unfinished building at the docks. One was clear and obvious, the other following in a failed attempt to be silent.

It might have worked on most people, even Taylor herself if she was not watching for it, but with her spirit sense, it was easy to strengthen her ears to focus in on the second approaching qi signal.

The walls weren't constructed, and the air flowed freely from the outside through the empty floor against the concrete supports.

She sat in cross legged meditation while in her casual clothes beside a support beam.

"Emma. Did you do what I told you?" She asked without opening her eyes, performing some simple qi movement exercises with her hands as a guide.

"Yes. I told everyone not to bother you anymore," Emma said, standing in front of her after turning the corner exiting the stairs.

"And will that be enough to stop them?"

"Most of them, yeah. Even Madison. She'll do whatever I say. But Sophia, I don't think so. She was pretty upset when I told her."

"Did she ask you why?"

"Yeah, and I didn't tell her, like you told me not to."

"Good. And the other thing I told you to do?"

"Um…it's kind of hard. And there wasn't really any time today."

"Make sure you do it. You must complete it within one week."

"Alright, I'll try..."

"Try? No. You will succeed, or you will die."

"I-I understand."

Sophia stormed out from behind the corner at the stairs.

"That's enough! Hebert, whatever you're using to blackmail Emma isn't going to work on me! This stops here!"

Taylor finally opened her eyes and gave Sophia a disdainful look.

"So the little bug finally shows itself. I was wondering how long you planned to wait?" Taylor stood up and dusted herself off.

"Stop trying to act cool, Hebert. You won't get away with this. Hand over what you're using to blackmail Emma and maybe you won't have to go to jail."

"Is that so? Emma, why don't you tell her how wrong she is?"

Emma looked at Sophia regretfully. "Sorry, Sophia. There is no blackmail. I'm just making up for past wrongs."

"Emma, come on! Let me help you, you know I can! What's she got over you? Naked pics or something? That's illegal anyways!"

The redhead shook her head. "I don't need help, Sophia. And…I'm sorry. We can't be friends anymore."

"Hebert, you bitch! If you won't hand it over, then I'll force it out of you!"

Sophia ran towards Taylor, who watched her and the incoming punch calmly.

She moved one finger up and shifted her head slightly with a turn so that it was both out of the way of the punch and gave the expression of looking down on Sophia.

The fist came to a stop with a small nudge from Taylor's finger, and Sophia's eyes widened like saucers with her arm fully extended, too stunned to retract her punch according to proper combat maneuvering.

"What the fuck?"

"Weak. How could such a weakling force anything out of me?" Taylor asked with a scoff.

"You're a cape! You triggered with Brute powers?" A look of understanding came over Sophia.

"No. That you can be so easily deceived shows your ineptitude. I merely positioned my finger at the natural end of your arm's extension. You are too weak to be worth even a single finger of real effort."

Sophia's eyes darted to her fully outstretched arm and her face twitched.

"Fuck you! Don't call me weak!" She pulled it back and got into a ready stance with both fists up. "So you learned some kung fu trickery and now you think you're hot shit? You got nothing on real fighting!"

Taylor moved her finger forward, then curled it twice in the welcoming gesture.

"Go to hell Hebert!"

Sophia came at Taylor again with a sideways kick aimed at her waist.

Taylor stepped backwards, then pushed Sophia's ankle just as it passed her. The additional force sent Sophia spinning out of control, far overextended, and Taylor followed up by moving into point blank range against Sophia's exposed back and hit several pressure points and qi meridian points.

Sophia's muscles locked up, but her kick continued to drag her sideways until she twisted and fell, paralyzed, eyes wide and darting around, but unable to speak or scream.

"You are weak, Sophia. You tried to prove your strength by preying on those weaker than you. Emma told me all about your philosophy. There are only predators and prey, and everyone is one or the other. If you fight back, you are a predator, and if you don't, you're a prey." Taylor said. "A narrow-minded view of the world. Emma has realized how foolish it was, haven't you, Emma?"

"Yes. Where there is yin, there is also yang. What is prey to one beast may be a predator to another. All living things share the desire to live, all are trapped in the struggle of life and death. The enlightened sage can live without desire, act without struggle, and feed without hunting."

Taylor nodded approvingly at Emma's recital of what she was taught.

In that moment, Sophia had heard enough and decided to act. She shifted to shadow form, and the paralysis was gone. A quick jump later and she was standing several meters away with a measuring look at Taylor and Emma.

"You are a cape after all. A grab bag of some kind? Brute, Striker, Master?"

Taylor didn't look concerned with Sophia's sudden revelation of powers.

"No, I'm not a cape. But from your perspective, the difference is only academic."

"You went after the wrong victim, Hebert. Were you high on your new powers, wanting to get back at us for everything you thought we did? You made a big mistake. Soon the PRT and Protectorate are going to come and lock you up, and you'll be sent to the Birdcage. That's what happens to human Master villains."

"A mistake? I don't think so, Shadow Stalker. You are the one who made a mistake in following Emma here to this place."

"So you know that I'm a Ward. You got some kind of trap laid here? You gonna try and hold Emma hostage? Too bad it ain't gonna work." Sophia put a hand in her pocket and took out her PRT issue phone.

Suddenly a needle struck her wrist and the phone fell out of her hand, clattering to the ground.

She tried to reach for it with her other arm, but found herself paralyzed again when more needles hit her neck.

As soon as she turned to shadow form again, Taylor was already on her, palm pushing against the shadow mist with a blast of qi.

The shadow was blown apart and scattered into gas that tried to quickly reform into a person.

Taylor waited for it to regain cohesion, then swept forward and struck Sophia's head as soon as it reformed with two fingers, qi penetrating the defenseless skin and skull into the brain.

The Corona Pollentia and Gemma were attacked by the qi. The brain matter in that section died instantly.

Sophia was blown back by the force of the finger poke and crumpled to the ground again with a killer headache.

"Argh! What the fuck did you do to me, Hebert?" She screamed when she realized she couldn't turn back to shadow form.

"I destroyed the part of your brain that gives you powers."

"What—what the fuck! You can't do that!"

"You're not a cape anymore, Sophia."

Taylor walked forward slowly while Sophia tried to back away with a panicked expression.

"No! The PRT will get you! You can't just take away powers, that's breaking the rules!"

"I don't care about the rules. I am one who challenged the will of heaven and won, such restrictions are meaningless to me. Rules serve those who created them. Sometimes they can create a foundation of civil society, but usually they simply allow the privileged to suppress the underprivileged. The latter is evidently the case with you."

"You're insane!"

"You will never understand because your role was not that of a predator, Shadow Stalker. When a wolf or a tiger stalks their prey, they don't do so for entertainment or to satisfy their pride. They do it with a practical goal in mind. To consume the prey for sustenance and strength, or mark their territory and eliminate the competition. You, on the other hand, merely chase shadows of no substance."

"I take down criminals and I'm fucking good at it!"

"Was Taylor Hebert, who did nothing to you, a criminal when you tried to kill her in the locker? You tormented an innocent girl for years, and used your privilege as a Ward to escape the punishment that should have been given to you by the rules of this society."

"I didn't use my status as a Ward for shit! Nobody helped you because they knew you weren't worth it!"

"It doesn't matter whether you actively used your status or whether you were simply protected by a corrupt system. In the end, the teachers and the PRT that should have stopped you turned a blind eye to everything you did until I nearly died for it, so I have to deal with you myself," she said after reaching the now powerless Ward, poking a few pressure points in quick succession. Sophia was unable to speak after that.

"As the penalty for your crimes against me, the removal of your powers would have been enough. Yet, I cannot afford to allow an enemy to come for revenge as I know you would. Even an ant can kill a lion, and you may even gain new powers by means unknown to me. While you live, my meditations would be restless. Good bye, Sophia Hess."

Sophia's eyes turned bloodshot as she mouthed a silent scream.

Six rectangular paper fu talismans shot out from Taylor's sleeves and attached to different points on the surrounding support pillars and the ground.

A complex circular design revealed itself beneath the three girls, glowing with power.

Wind swirled around them as the paper talismans fluttered rapidly.

They were positioned in the eyes of the magic formation that was being activated.

Taylor herself stood in the most important eye, holding her fingers together in a seal, and muttering an incantation.

"What's going on?" Emma asked fearfully as she looked around. Suddenly the wind blew her away out of the circle.

Sophia writhed and spasmed, then from the ground a pillar of unnatural green fire consumed her.

Her skin wrinkled and dried, then cracked and disintegrated to reveal the skeleton underneath, and that too broke into dust, leaving only clothes and a small dark bead behind.

Emma watched while holding herself up with one hand after tumbling to the ground. Her mouth was wide open, horrified, while her whole body was trembling.

When the wind and fire died down, the fu talismans burned away into nothing, taking the ink of the formation diagram with them, leaving clean lines on the ground amidst the dust.

Taylor walked over to the clothes and rummaged among them to find the dark sphere that was like a blackened pearl.

It was a sarira produced from the remains of those with higher than normal qi levels, specifically refined by the formation Taylor used.

Most people's bodies and souls were not spiritually powerful enough to produce sarira, but all cultivators did, and some naturally gifted people with abnormal qi levels or special physiques did as well, when using the right fires to refine their remains.

The higher the cultivation level, the bigger and purer the sarira produced. Like the other capes Taylor had met so far, Sophia had abnormal qi levels, which persisted even after the cell death of her Corona and Gemma, but even so her remains only produced the lowest quality of sarira.

Still, there were uses for it, so Taylor put it away. Then she picked up the PRT phone and Sophia's clothes as well, before stuffing it all into a bag she had hidden behind a pillar slightly farther away.

Emma was still shaking and staring at Taylor like she was the devil when Taylor came to her.

"Get up, Emma. We're leaving," she ordered before walking away with the bag hanging over her shoulder.

As she walked away, she could feel her turbulent qi finding a new balance within.

With the binding of Emma and death of Sophia, two potential inner demons had been eliminated.

The solutions were not ideal, but nothing ever was. There would be consequences, and if her actions were ever made known to the so-called heroes, they would never accept her as one of them.

But so what?

He who defines himself cannot know who he really is.

Even if she would be a hero, she would do so on her own terms.

She would pursue justice and the enlightened path as she knew it, not the corrupt justice of a broken system and a world that conspired against her at every turn.

She didn't need to call herself a hero to follow the will in her heart.

O O O


End file.
